


Heavy

by 1307



Series: ZA Verse Bethyl Family [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M, pregnant!beth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 17:44:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 32,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4401359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1307/pseuds/1307
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Zach's death, Beth and Daryl get closer--actually, a little too close for Maggie's liking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. for all the things my eyes have seen; the best by far is you

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first bethyl and its actually my first f/m so that's fun (that i've posted)  
> i've been working on this since may which is so strange to me; it doesn't seem like its been that long, but alas, microsoft word doesn't lie.  
> anyway, i love writing pregnancy because i think its so interesting and what more of a twist than writing it in a zombie apocalypse. and i love bethyl so i put them together and i got this fic.  
> some information you might find useful as you read:  
> i aged up judith because i can; she's about a year and two months when the story starts, and a little over two at the end.  
> i didn't know what month its supposed to be when they start s4, so i just guessed by the jackets and stuff that was the end of february.  
> my math isnt perfect even though i wrote down dates in a notebook when i was writing this, so if something seems off i'm sorry. i tried my best to keep it straight, and i think i succeeded for the most part. it just gets iffy around the birth (but i did a due date calculator and it told me i was right so idk!! maybe i'm just being hard on myself)  
> i tried to keep it as realistic as possible with the runs and stuff, taking into consideration what they've shown us on the show, so if you think the walmart thing is totally off; sorry but chances are there are stores that are completely in tact still because of walkers guarding it.  
> i attempted to write sex but i dont think it turned out very well, i left it in though (kinda, it is cut off before anything happens), so sorry if it burns your eyes. i'm trying to get better tho, maybe they’ll be some in the second fic idk we’ll see)  
> also: -=- a short time skip, usually a day or two, -=-=-=- is longer, which i usually state the time skip. 
> 
> anyway, now that that the notes are longer than the fic; thank you for giving it a chance and comments (including those telling me what i should improve on; as long as it's done nicely and not like LMAO U SUCK) are greatly appreciated.  
> and there's already a second fic in the works. :)  
> any questions or concerns can be brought to my attention at: baberaham-ford.tumblr.com

Two days ago Daryl told Beth that Zach had been killed by walkers out on a run. She had taken it well, which was the most shocking part of it all. Beth had always been soft when it came to losing people, Daryl still remembered when Shane opened the doors to the barn and they let their bullets rip through her family as she watched, sobbing. He remembered how she ran over to her mother’s corpse and almost got bit and to be pulled away while she watched T-Dog smash her skull. He was a different person then, really, he knows that. They all were. If he was then who he is now, he might’ve tried to stop Shane, get him to try a different way.

But Beth, sweet, innocent Beth, just looked at him and changed that number on her accident countdown like she spilled some of Judith’s formula or someone tripped on the loose grate in the bathroom again. She’d hardened, kind of. Not like Maggie and definitely not like him, but in her own way. He guessed she finally learned to accept what she couldn’t control—losing people.

Her hands move through Judith’s hair, parting off the short pieces into manageable sections before taking the comb in one hand and her other lightly on Judith’s shoulder. Daryl recognizes the song she’s singing as she pulls the red comb through Judith’s dark brown hair as ‘The Clouded Day’ it played at his mom’s memorial service, he’s pretty sure, he’s tried to distance himself from that memory.

Daryl continues to watch as she grabs a small elastic out of its container (he’s the one who grabbed those on the run before last, Judith’s hair was wild like her mama’s and her brother’s, all dark and thick, figured she’d want it off her at some point) and pulls one side of her hair into a small pigtail, looping the elastic around quickly. There’s just a little nub, not even half an inch of hair.

She looks up while still singing, twisting the elastic around the other part of Judith’s hair. “Hi Daryl.” She blushes a little, grabbing the comb and taping her fingers against the plastic. “Didn’t know you were in here. I was just doing Judith’s hair, thanks for the elastics, by the way.”  
Daryl shrugs off the thanks, in a way it made him uncomfortable, he was just doing what he needed to do. He didn’t need a damned parade because he grabbed something for Judith; it was his job. “Hey.”

“Did you come to play with her? I think she’s getting bored of me and my singing.”

“Nah, just…” He watches as she tucks her long blond hair behind her ear. “came to see if you was alright.”

“Cause’a Zach? Told you I’m fine.” There’s part of him that wants to believe her, that when she told him that she doesn’t cry anymore, she was telling the truth. But she’s still soft Beth to him with a song in her heart and her head in the clouds. Doesn’t matter how well she takes her boyfriend’s death.

“Alright.” He nods, and runs a finger along the metal railing of the stairs. “Guess I’ll get back to work then.”

Beth nods. “Okay.”

“See you at supper.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It’s warm and sunny outside when Beth slides Judith’s too big jacket on, they had been cooped up in this prison for too long because of the winter, Judith needed to get some fresh air that wasn’t going to give her a chill and make her sick.  
Beth doesn’t have to bend over much like Rick and Daryl do when Judith takes their hand to walk, instead she stands nearly straight and leads her outside, helping her along the four steps out of the cell block.

Carol’s walking to the cell block when she sees them coming down the hallway, she smiles and waves to the two girls, causing Judith to giggle. Despite all of what happened when she was born, she was glad there was a reason for people to smile. She still remembers the first time Daryl held her, after he and Maggie came back from the daycare. The smile and excitement in his voice and he cuddled her close and fed her. That was the first time she’s ever really saw him smile, ever heard him talk sweetly.

Beth pushes open the door that leads to the main yard, the sound of chopping wood makes her ears perk as the fresh air hits her cheeks. Daryl is about ten feet in front of the pig house, logs all around him, swinging an ax above his head and chopping the wood in two. When he’s satisfied with the size he lay the ax down and adds the pieces to the pile. He’s in his normal flannel with no sleeves, his leather kutte slung carefully over the fence of the garden. His muscles are slick and shiny from the sweat, Beth isn’t going to lie and say that it doesn’t make her heart race a little faster.

“Hey, Daryl.”

Daryl looks up and moves his gloved right hand above his eyes so he could see. “What’re you two doing?”

“Thought I’d let Judith be outside for a little while since it’s nice. Do you mind?”

“Nah, I’ve got enough wood chopped.”

Beth smiles and picks Judith up so she doesn’t roll down the slight decline to where Daryl and his wood piles were. She watches as he picks up the ax and walks over to the fence, placing it inside the garden so Judith won’t accidentally touch it and hurt herself. “What’s it for?”

“Cook with. Carol says we’re running out. Don’t got anything else to do so I told her I’d chop some.”

“That’s nice’a you.” She sets Judith down and she wanders over to the fence and squeals at the pigs, making them quickly run to the other side.

Daryl grunts. “Saw some flowers down by the driveway.”

“Really?”

He nods. “Shepherd’s needles.”

“We had some of those on the farm.” Beth smiles. “Always saw butterflies near ‘em. They’re pretty.”

Daryl nods and watches as Judith attempts to stick her arm through the fence, wanting to touch the nearest pig. “Should’a called her lil’ troublemaker.”

-=-=-=-=-=-

A week later, Beth spends the morning making a meal for the group going on the run in the afternoon. They were back to searching houses and they could possibly be gone all day and maybe into the morning.

“Glenn doesn’t like mustard.” Beth reminds Carol as she cuts a few more slices from the loaf of bread Carol had made. “Daryl’ll eat anything, though.”

Carol laughs. “That’s true, it’s kind of gross.”

Beth smiles. “Remember before we found this place and he ate that chicken liver cat food? And it said it was good. Ick.”

“Oh, that was vile. I’ve been trying to erase it from my memory.” Carol teases.

-=-

“Brought you your lunch.” Beth extends the plastic bag with his name written on the side to him.

“What is it?”

“Deer sandwich with some vegetables and fruit. Real balanced.”

“Thank God.” He scoffs as he looks over the plastic bag. “Spelt my name wrong.” He mumbles.

“No I didn’t.”

Daryl turns the bag back to her. “Says Darly, name’s Daryl.”

Beth sighs, feeling slightly embarrassed. She had been so focused on making sure she had everyone’s food correct, she overlooked the spelling. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” He smirks. “Just funny.”

“Glad you aren’t mad.”

“Got a lot of things to be mad about, you switchin’ up two letters ain’t one.”

She’s glad he’s changed. She remembers when she first met him, he rolled onto her daddy’s farm on that loud motorcycle and an even louder mouth. He had a bad attitude and was rude. Beth honestly didn’t understand why she thought he was cute at all. He was dirty and smelled awful and was constantly disobeying daddy carrying that weapon around.

“You need anything?” He asks. “Rick has a list but if you need somethin’ I can keep an eye out.”

“Paper.”

“Paper?”

“Yeah, to write on.” She stops to think for a minute, lightly nibbling at her bottom lip. “And daddy needs socks, he wore a hole through his last pair, I’m trying to fix it but in case I can’t he’ll need a back-up pair.”

Daryl nods and resists the urge to ask if he should just get one sock. “Alright.”

“Be safe.”

-=-

The next morning there’s a stack of notebooks outside her cell door. She hadn’t even heard him drop them off in the middle of the night she had been sleeping so well, which was a rarity now. She picked them up and noticed a small piece of paper folded in half resting on the top. She sets them on her bed and picks it up.

these should last ya a while.  
darly

She laughs at his intentional misspelling. Daryl’s handwriting is exactly what she expected. It wasn’t pretty and neat like hers, but shaky and jagged and hard to read. Exactly like him.

-=-

“Thank you for my notebooks.” Beth sets her plate of toast and roasted squirrel next to Daryl’s.

“Ain’t a big deal. They were in a closet in some kid’s room.”

Beth looks down, it was kind of sad, honestly. This kid probably had them to start school. “Well thank you anyway, it was very nice of you.”

“All ya gotta do is ask.” He shrugs and picks up his piece of squirrel and begins to eat.

-=-=-=-=-

A bonfire didn’t seem like the most practical use of wood, but they needed a distraction. It was just changing from winter into spring, they could finally be outside without the worry of sickness, they had some medicine stashed away, but not enough for everyone in the prison to get sick at the same time.

It was Hershel’s idea, they had lost a lot of people over the winter, they’d use this as a memorial service. Everyone could write the names of people they lost that were important to them, then they’d throw the names into the fire. Not to forget them, but to help let go of the sadness.

Beth had written Patricia, Zach, and Jimmy on hers, they never got a real funeral. She remembered being on the road after they left the farm, praying and praying. Praying for Jimmy, praying for Patricia. She wasn’t sure if it even mattered anymore, but it was all she could do.

She had three slips of paper, Daryl, who was next to her, had one. She knew Merle’s name was the one scrawled in Daryl’s messy handwriting. She had never liked Merle, she thought that he was absolutely terrible, but she knew that he meant a lot to Daryl, even if he didn’t talk about it. She knew they didn’t have the type of relationship that she had with Maggie and Shawn.

Everyone went around and put their pieces in one by one, when it got to Beth she walked up with confidence to the small fire, but she hesitated. She knew that putting this names in the fire wouldn’t change the fact she missed her mom and brother and Patricia and Jimmy and Zach.

Finally, she tosses them in, right on top and then steps back, turning away from the fire. Daryl is looking at her, he gives her a nod as she walks back to her place to next him. She watches as Daryl walks up to the fire and tosses his paper in, no hesitation. She’s surprised by the little pieces of sadness poking through his tough exterior. His eyes looking a bit heavy and his relaxed shoulders.

He resumes his place next to her, adjusting his crossbow as he looks forward, truthfully, he thought this whole thing was stupid and a waste of wood.

She makes the decision quick, she extends her hand and grabs his, forcefully interlacing their fingers together.

Daryl doesn’t move his hand away.

-=-

The next night Daryl found Beth out by the pigs, she was lightly humming as she scratched the sow’s ears. He had never seen her in the pig pen before, occasionally she would help Hershel and Rick with the gardening if Judith was down for a nap or they just had a lot to do. But in the pen? No way.

He didn’t want to interrupt her serenade of the pigs, but curiosity was getting the better of him. “What’re you doing out here?”

She turns to look at him, a smile on her face, right hand still scratching the pig’s ears. “Just needed to be reminded of home.”

“The farm?”

“Mmhmm.” She nods as she gives the pig a final pat on the head before wiping her hand on her thigh. “Last night made me realize how much I missed it. Thought being around the pigs would help.”

“Did it?” He leans against the fence, watching as she steps over one of the sleeping piglets.

“A little. It’s not exactly the same. Shawn’s not here to threaten to throw me in the mud and mama’s not here to scold him and hit him with her tea towel.” Her smile gets a little bigger and a dreamier. “Rather’d have them than the pigs, as cute as they are.”

Daryl always envied the Greenes. He always thought about how it might be to have a loving family. A mom who cared more about her kids than her booze and cigarettes. A dad who didn’t take his work related frustrations on his wife and sons. A brother that wasn’t a dick. Maybe his life would’ve been different. “Sorry.”

“You ever miss your mama?” She asks as she walks through the gate, making sure it was closed and locked when she got to the other side.

“Sometimes, I guess. She wasn’t like yours. Didn’t make me a cake on my birthday or buy me shoes. She just drank her wine and smoked her smokes. Too young to remember anything else. Weren’t like Lori or Carol or your mama.”

“And your daddy?” She asks tentatively, the smile on her face had been removed by Daryl’s story.

“Biggest piece’a shit to walk the earth.” He says simply, adjusting the crossbow on his back.

“I’m sorry Daryl, I—”

“Ain’t nothing.” He cuts her off. “Grateful for it, wouldn’t know what I know. You all’d be dead.”

A small grin returns to Beth’s face and her cheeks get a little warm. They fall into a comfortable silence while looking at each other, the pigs snorting and sniffing in the background.

“What’re you doing out here anyway?” She finally asks.

“Was checkin’ the perimeter, then I saw you over here.”

“You’re nosy like Maggie.”

“Ain’t nosy. I was making sure you weren’t dead or somethin’.”

Beth laughs and it makes Daryl’s stomach flip. “Can I ask you somethin’?”

“Might not have’a answer.”

She nods. “Can you take me outside the gates?”

“The hell you wanna go out there for?”

“Haven’t been outside since we got here, tired of it, s’all.”

“You’re gonna have’ta ask your daddy.”

“Daryl, I’m eighteen, don’t need his permission.”

“Ain’t taking you out unless he says it’s okay.”

-=-

Hershel wasn’t convinced. He sat stoic as she leaned against the wall in his cell. “It’s just not safe, Bethie.”

“I’ll be with Daryl. He’ll protect me.”

“I don’t understand why you need to go outside, it’s safe in here.”

“You let Glenn go, Maggie, too.”

“It’s different, Beth.”

“Why’s it different? Because Glenn’s a boy and Maggie’s tough?”

“No, Bethie.” He sighs. “They know what they’re doing, know how to use weapons.”

Beth stops for a minute, trying to come up with something quickly or her outside time wasn’t going to happen. “Daryl’s going to teach me how to use his bow.” She lies. “He thinks it’ll be better to do it outside the fences, safer.”

“Can’t really argue with that, it being safer.” He smooths down his pillow. “I suppose you can go, Beth. But you need to promise me that you will be safe and listen to Daryl.”

-=-

“Thought maybe we could eat lunch under the trees.” Beth smiles and moves her backpack to her side and lifts one out. “Spelled your name right this time.” The bag he had from the last run had a big, black scribble over Darly and Daryl was written below it in slightly smaller handwriting. He could still smell the permanent marker scent coming off it.

Daryl arches his eyebrow, he thought they were just going for a ride, he wasn’t aware of this picnic business. “Whatever you want, girl.” He’d go with it, though. She hadn’t really been out, if she wanted to eat her sandwich under a tree while he stayed on watch, then that’s what they’d do. “Let’s go, burning daylight.” He walks over to his parked bike and climbs on, looking back as he situates himself, checking to see if she was coming.

Beth’s eyes are wide and her heart his beating quickly. “Thought we were walking.”

“Bike’s faster. C’mon.”

She swallows the lump in her throat and walks over, tracing the leather seat with her finger. “How do I get on?”

Daryl scoffs. “Like a fucking bike, Beth.”

She nods to herself and climbs on, straddling the seat, sliding into the groove right behind Daryl. She can feel his red kerchief/sweat rag pushed against her thigh.

“Put your arms around me.” He grabs her right hand and brings it to his front, pushing it against the leather of his jacket. Beth brings her left around and claps them together like she did when she would sing in the choir at church. “Don’t let go. Ain’t explaining to your daddy how you fell off my bike, got it?”

She nods against his patched angel wings. “Trust me, I’m not letting go.”

He revs the engine and pushes the kickstand and he’s off towards the gate, waving at Carl as he goes.

-=-

They ride for a few miles, the wind blowing through Beth’s blonde curls as they headed down the highway, weaving in and out of parked cars. Beth had gotten a little more confident and wasn’t pressed against Daryl’s leather, she had pushed herself back so she could see the sights. She’d been on this road a couple of times before the turn, sitting in the backseat of her daddy’s truck, squished between Maggie and Shawn while she tried to look out the window. Now she was out in it, attached to Daryl, free to look around any direction she pleased. Her eyes were focused on her right, watching as the trees passed by quickly, forming a blur.

She notices an area ahead where the trees were cut out, she figured there must be a building or something up there and she wanted to see it. Beth frees her right hand, keeping her left pushed against Daryl and taps him lightly, catching his attention before she points to the alcove ahead.

-=-

It’s an old gas station, pushed off the road about thirty feet by a gravel driveway up to the two old fashion gas pumps. The paint on the siding is starting to chip and flake and the foundation is cracking under the weight of a building that has to be at least seventy years old.

“Ain’t never seen this place before.” Daryl comments as flips the kickstand down.

“Really?” Beth asks as she climbs off the now quiet bike, stretching her arms above her head, making her polka dot t-shirt rise over her tummy.

“Usually go the other way.” Daryl slides off the bike with ease.

“Can we go in?” Beth runs her thumbs down her backpack’s straps, settling in where the nylon formed a loop.

Daryl grabs his cross bow off the back of the bike. “Might as well. Stay behind me.”

Beth follows Daryl up the creaky steps, avoiding the spot on the side where the wood had rotted through. She feels for the knife on her hip, making sure it was there and ready to be used if necessary. It had been a while since she had had to use it—she was hoping being holed up in the prison on baby duty hadn’t made her soft. Daryl signals for her to go to the door so she could open it and he could shoot anything that came out.

Her heart raced as she grabbed on to the door knob, twisting it and flinging it open. Bells that had been hung on the store side of the door banged into a drink cooler.

Nothing came to the door.

Daryl heads in, crossbow at the ready, signaling for her to follow closely—but not too closely—behind him.

The store is old and smells of mold and rotting wood. The shelves have been ripped off the wall and snacks of all sorts were strewn across the floor. Cooler doors were open and the cash register had been thrown onto the floor. The magazine rack had been flipped over and broken bottles of tea were smashed on top, soaking the paper and warping it when it dried.

There’s a door with a restroom sign off to the side, as well as a door that probably led to storage at the back, half blocked by some of the still-standing racks.

Deciding there was no threat in this room, Daryl lowers his bow slightly. “See anything we can use?”

“Might be some unopened chips over here, Carl’ll love those.” She smiles and tucks the strand of hair that wasn’t quite long enough to be swooped up in her ponytail behind her ear. “Should we check behind the doors? Just to be safe?”

Daryl nods. “Good idea.” He wasn’t planning on teaching her how to scavenge and clear buildings today, but while he had her out here, he might as well try. She needed to know in case something happened, and her daddy thought she was learning something anyway, he’d hate to lie to him. “You wanna take the lead?”

Beth looks at him with wide eyes. “Go in there alone?”

“Not alone. I’ll be behind you.”

She sighs. “You’re gonna make me, aren’t you?”

“Ain’t gonna make you.”  
She trusted Daryl, she knew she’d be safe. “I’ll do it.”

Daryl watches as she tentatively heads towards the door, her right hand grasping onto her knife for dear life, her left reaching towards the once shiny knob of the door. “You coverin’ me?” She asks quietly, her hand shaking a little. “Got you.” He keeps his finger on the trigger, pointing the serving towards the door. Nothing was happening to her on his watch. She twists the handle and pushes it open, stepping back as she does.

Beth can hear it snarling in the tiny room, she rocks back and forth on the balls of her feet, waiting for it to make its way toward her, if she went in, she wouldn’t have the advantage. Daryl listens as the snarls get louder and the shuffling gets closer, then he watches as Beth pushes it against the wall, shrieking as it attempts to grab her. “I got it!” She calls struggling to keep it in place. Daryl doesn’t move, he watches—Beth could do this, he knows she can.

She stabs it, but in the cheek, which really made it angry. Dark brown-red blood got all over her light shirt and her face, which made her angry. Daryl could see it as she gritted her teeth and let out a yell, stabbing it in the temple and letting it fall.

“Gross.” She mumbles as she leans down to get her knife, it’s stuck, or maybe she’s just not strong enough to pull it out quickly like Maggie can.

Daryl heard the shuffling steps, but he was pretty sure Beth didn’t. “Leave it! Get behind me!”

“What?” Beth turns around and sees a walker coming towards her, she attempts to move away from the corpse on the floor, but the new walker is coming too quickly.

Daryl pulls the trigger and lets his arrow do the dirty work, the walker falls to the ground, shaking the old planks beneath him. “Get your knife, I’m leading this.”

Beth grabs her knife and pulls it out, wiping the blood on the walker’s shirt. “Thanks.” She mumbles breathily.

They check the rest of the old gas station quickly, there’s no other walkers. Beth is relieved. There was a difference between them being out in the open and being on the fence where there was no real danger.

Daryl watches as Beth wipes at her face, attempting to get the dried walker blood off. There are tears forming in her eyes as she scrubs with her thumb and palm. He grabs his red kerchief and his water bottle and pours a little on before handing it to her. “You’re making it worse.”

She sniffs and takes it, rubbing her forehead before Daryl tells her she’s in the wrong place and she moves to her cheek and she still can’t get it. “Can you help?” She asks finally, accepting defeat.

He takes the kerchief back from her and steps closer, lightly wiping the blood off her forehead—she wasn’t even close to the right area.

“Thank you.”

Daryl doesn’t say anything, instead he continues wiping at her face, making sure to get all the blood off. He was used to it by now. And blood never really bothered him, all his years of hunting had taken the gross factor out of it.

“You’ve got blood on your face, too.”

“Don’t bother me.”

“Well, it bothers _me_.” She holds her hand out for the kerchief and Daryl reluctantly hands it over. She moves the fabric, flipping it so she can find a cleaner place. Then she brings it right above his brow, standing on her tippy-toes she can reach, she lightly places her hand on Daryl’s chest she doesn’t fall on top of him. It’s intimate, in a way, how she lightly drags the cloth against his skin, lightly humming as she does. She’s in his personal space and normally that would make him back up a couple feet, but he doesn’t mind when it’s Beth. Her presence is calming.

She falls back on her feet, removing her hand and Daryl immediately misses the small amount of warmth that radiated from her palm to his leather. She moves that hand up to his cheek and cups it. “Think this is the cleanest I’ve ever seen your face.” She teases.

“Ain’t that bad.” He scoffs, trying to move his face away from her touch, even though he likes it.

“You look so nice when you’re clean.” She states with a smile.

“Gee, thanks.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” She still has her hand on his face. “Just meant you clean up well. You’re handsome.”

Beth doesn’t comment on the slight pink tint to Daryl’s cheeks as he mumbles a ‘thanks’ that’s barely audible. She leans up on her tippy-toes once again and presses a kiss where his straggly facial hair and his pink tinted cheeks meet. It’s quick and soft, but they both feel a tingle on their skin. She drops down, her own cheeks matching his. It’s the closest they’ve been since the hug after Zach died, when he elected himself to be the bearer of bad news. That hug, that fucking hug and the way her sweater slipped from her shoulder. That was why he was suddenly wanting to be around her, he wanted that contact. It wasn’t even a sexual thing, it just was just her and the vibe she gave off. He was just about as over the moon as he could get it. “We should probably see what we can use.” She backs away and heads over to the pile of snacks on the ground.

-=-

“Did you learn anything, honey?” Hershel asks as he sits next to his youngest daughter at dinner.

“Yeah, daddy.” She smiles and picks up her fork.

“That’s good, it’s a good idea you learning how to take care of yourself. Maybe Daryl will take you out again?”

-=-

When Beth returns to her cell she finds a small cup filled with shepherd’s needles placed precariously on the flat part of the bars. She immediately knows it’s from Daryl before she even picks it up. There’s a note under it, jagged and torn from a much larger piece of paper, just like the one that was with her notebooks. Carefully, she grabs the cup and the paper and heads inside, she sets the note on her bed and sets the cup on the filing cabinet ‘dresser’ that creates a nice display for her stuff.

After pouring some of water into the cup she flops on her bed, grabbing the note. The one side has print on it, a form from the prison. _Sunset. Pigs_. is all it read in that shaky handwriting on the other.

-=-

Beth pulled her white sweater a little closer as she walked out of the cell block door. Spring had sprung, but there was still a slight chill in the evening. She can see him standing down by the pigs, his masculine frame darkening the pinkish-purple sky, he’s not looking at her, he’s looking out to the fences down below where a small group of four walkers had formed on the fence.

She wished that they could just have one day of peace.

He turns around when he hears her stomping through the grass, he shakes his head; she has so much to learn.

“Hey Daryl.” She smiles when she gets a few feet away.

“Hey.”

Beth may not be able to read weird imprints on the dirt of the forest floor and figure out what kind of animal is nearby, but she can read people, and Daryl was nervous. He was rubbing his neck when he looked at her, his eyes weren’t looking at hers; instead they peered over head towards the prison. “I’m glad it’s not freezing.”

He nods and turns back to the pigs, tracing the woodgrain on the fence. Beth was looking especially pretty the day he and Rick and Glenn put it up. She brought them water and damp cloths to wipe their sweat. Her hair was similar to the way it was tonight, braided, but to the left side, those few stubborn strands poking out around her face, catching the light when she stood a certain way. “Hate the cold, actually. Rather it’d be hot.”

“Hm.” Daryl grunts. He was starting to think this was a bad idea, asking her out here with this plan of kissing her. So he continues to stare at the fence below, watching as a walker comes stumbling out of the woods.

“Um, Daryl.”

“Huh?”

“Is there a reason you wanted me out here? I’m happy to watch the pigs with you but...”

“You look pretty.” He’s not even sure why he says it, but he’s never really had a way with words anyhow.

“Thank you.” She smiles and walks up to the fence next to him, watching the same walker mosey through the tall grass to where the others were. Her cheeks burn a little as she watches as his pointer finger moves around the fence. The space between his bare arm and her sweater clad one is maybe two inches at most. “You’re pretty handsome, too.” She lightly bumps his arm before looking over at him, his cheeks matching hers, slightly pink.

He looks over and the options start weighing in his mind; if he kissed her and she was totally repulsed, he could easily go back to ignoring her like he had up until recently. It’d kill him inside, but he could do it.

That stupid strand of hair is falling in her face again and if there was ever a sign to just do it, this was it. “Hair’s in your face.” He mumbles before lifting his hand and tucking it behind her ear. She lightly leans into his touch, feeling his warm hands on the side of her head. Then he’s leaning in, closing the already small gap between them, and lightly ghosting his lips over hers, moving his hand down to her neck so his thumb could move over her jawline.

Beth is the one that makes it an official kiss, pressing her lips against his, her hand still on the wooden fence, and her other one pressed against his leather kutte.

It’s quick and chaste, just lips on lips, before Daryl pulls away, his hand still on her face, his other getting ready to sneak around to her hip. Beth’s eyes are wider than normal and there’s a tiny grin plastered on her lips.

Neither one wants to ruin the moment, so they stay quiet, looking at each other in the pinky-purple tones from the sky. Daryl still tracing her jaw his with his dirt-covered thumb, Beth running her fingers along the seams on the front of his kutte.

-=-

He walks her back to her cell ten minutes later, when they heard the large door to the cellblock slam shut and saw Tyreese heading out to the main tower for guard duty. That meant that Glenn would be coming down at any minute and Beth really didn’t want to explain why she was out next to the pigs with Daryl to her brother-in-law.

Daryl wants to kiss her when she backs up against the bars, that smile on her face, basically daring him. That was a risk he wasn’t willing to take, though. At least not yet. Hershel was known to hobble down to get a book at this time of night.

“That was nice.” Beth rubs her lips together. “We should do it again sometime?”

Daryl smirks. “Maybe.”

“Maybe?” She asks with a laugh.

“I’ll walk to breakfast in the morning, if you want.”

Beth nods. “I’d like that. Goodnight, Daryl.”

“Night.”

-=-

“Mornin’.” Daryl leans against the bars to Beth’s cell, sticking his face between them.

“Good morning, Daryl.” She smiles. “Ready to go to breakfast?”

He moves back, removing his face from the bars, and nods. “Yeah, hope it’s good.”

-=-

Breakfast went by quickly, Beth and Daryl ate with Rick, then Beth was handed Judith right as she crapped her pants, so she had to run back to the cell block quickly.

“You know how to ruin a moment, huh?” She asks Judith as she attaches the safety pin through the piece of cut of sheet they were using for her diapers. “Lucky you’re cute.” Beth grabs the pair of pink leggings she was wearing before she pooped all over them, and tosses them into the laundry bag.

“You get any on you?”

Beth looks over to the staircase where Daryl is standing. “No, her diaper and pants caught most of it, thank goodness.”

“You’d still look cute.”

“Glad to hear it.” She teases. “Want to grab me a pair of pants for her out Rick’s cell? They should be in the top drawer.”

Daryl nods and heads into the cell block, he could hear Judith and Beth giggling as he walked. He always felt so weird going to into the other’s cells, it felt like an invasion of privacy somehow, even though he was pretty sure he’s see Rick’s bare ass more times than he’s seen Merle’s, and Merle went through a phase where he mooned everyone and everything.

He opened the filing cabinet drawer and pulled out the first pair of Judith sized pants he could find before closing it and heading back. He didn’t want to mess with anything and wanted to get out of there quickly.

“Thanks.” Beth takes them and rolls the legs up to get them over Judith’s chubby legs easier.

“Wanna do something later?” He asks, leaning against the railing to the stairs.

“You gonna take me to the movies?” She teases, pulling Judith’s pants over her diaper and grabbing her shoes to slip them on.

“Would if I could.” He scratches his arm. “Maybe teach you how to actually use the bow? Wouldn’t want to lie to your daddy.”

“Who’s going to watch Judith?”

Daryl shrugs. “Her dad, maybe? Brother?”

“If I can find someone to look after her, I’d like that.”

-=-

“Need you to watch Judith.” Daryl leans against the garden fence.

Rick looks up and squints, hands in the dirt. “What’s Beth doing?”

“I was going to teach her how to use the bow. Figured she needed a break.”

Their eyes meet and Daryl would never admit, but he was silently begging Rick to just do it—take care of his kid for two hours so he could have some alone time with Beth. So Tyreese or Glenn or her father wouldn’t interrupt them.

“You won’t be gone that long?”

“Two hours at the most.”

Rick nods. “Guess I could have Carl stop reading those damn comics for a little to come down here and help me.”

“Thanks, Rick.”

“She ask you?” He asks as he stands up, wiping his hands on his thighs. “To teach her?”

“Kinda.”

Rick nods, a smile forming on his lips. Like he knew. “Mind bringing Judith down here? And getting Carl? Don’t want to bring dirt in, Tyreese will kill me.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

-=-

Beth is sitting on the floor with Judith at her side when he comes back inside to the prison. They’re reading a book about pigs doing crafts—Daryl remembers the triumphant look on Rick’s face when he found the stack of books back in a house they searched, holding them above his head like he found the goddamn Holy Grail, a huge smile on his face.

“Got you off babysitting duty.”

Beth looks up, staring at him quizzically. “How?”

“Rick and Carl are watching her. Asked Rick if he could.”

“Really?” Beth closes the book and stands up before grabbing Judith.

“Gotta take her to him, Rick’s a lazy son’a’bitch.” Daryl nods. “Know where Carl is?”

“Library, probably.” She walks over to Daryl, placing the book on the table as she walks.

“I’ll go get ‘im.”

Beth nods. “I’ll get her ready.”

Daryl hesitates for a minute before kissing her lightly, just like the kiss from last night—except quicker. He couldn’t help but think he could get used to kissing her every day.

-=-

“What did Carl say?” Beth asks as they head down to the gates.

“Same thing as his dad—wanted to know why you couldn’t watch her.”

“Oh.”

“Told both of them you needed a break. That shut them up quick.”

“Thanks, Daryl.”

They walk in silence the rest of the way to the gate, Daryl cautiously looking around as he did. It’s not that he didn’t trust the gates—as weak as they were—it was just a force of habit.

Sasha opens the gates and waves at them, Beth mimics and follows Daryl out.

-=-

Daryl moves the bow off his back and extends it to her. “Take it.”

“You were serious?” She asks, staring at the hunk of black and camo painted metal.

He squints. “Yeah, I told you I was going to teach you.”

“I thought you were joking.”

“Wasn’t.” He shakes it, shoving it at her. “Rick said we got two hours.”

She sighs, grabbing the crossbow from him, expecting it to be lightweight the way he flips it around like it was nothing. It’s not heavy, especially after lifting Judith up and down about a hundred times a day, but it’s not as light as she was expecting. “How do I hold it?”

“Don’t you pay attention?”

“To you? No.” She teases.

He gets behind her, helping her position the bow before stepping back; hands off.

-=-

They walk around the woods for a while, Beth practicing looking for clues of different animals in the area. There wasn’t anything out; Daryl knew there wouldn’t be, he had probably single-handedly killed all the squirrels in this part of the woods.

After about forty-five minutes of the basic tracking course, Daryl brought out the piece of chalk he had stolen from Judith’s toys and made marks at various heights on the trees, allowing Beth to get some practice in on hitting targets as well as learning how to cock the bow when necessary. Mostly she just missed.

“One more, c’mon Beth.” He points to the mark in the middle of the tree. “Don’t want Rick getting his panties in a bunch ‘cause we’re late.”

“I’m gonna miss.” She sighs and heaves the bow back into place. “You just want to laugh again.”

Daryl smirks. “You were off by twenty feet, course I laughed.”

“It wasn’t twenty feet. I’m bad but not that bad.”

“You’re doing good.” He points to the target again. “One more.”

She breathes slow and steady, letting her finger move over the trigger, watching as Daryl moves a safe distance from the tree. Another breath; in and out. Eyes moving back to the target, pointer finger pressing down on the trigger. The arrow zooms out, hitting the tree with a thunk. It’s not on the target, it’s actually a few inches higher, but she’s elated. She did it, finally.

Beth lowers the bow, a smile on her face as Daryl walks over to the tree. “I hit it!”

Daryl isn’t going to be the one to point out that she didn’t hit the mark on the tree, her excitement was too cute. If it was Rick or Carl, he’d shove it in their face, but this is Beth who can shoot, but not as well as the rest of the group. She needed practice and he’s more than willing to help her.

He likes the alone time with her, where she talks about the colors of the leaves and asks him if he remembers some popular song before the turn, where he mostly just grumbles a no, and then she’ll sing a few bars.

She bounces over to the tree and yanks the arrow out of the bark, somehow it was easier than the walker skull. “Didn’t hit the mark.” Her smile is replaced by a frown for all of two seconds before the smile appears again. “At least I didn’t hit you.” She extends the bow to him, which he takes, slinging it on his back.

“I think I finally figured out the next part to that song.” She twirls the arrow between her fingers.

“I’ll sleep easy tonight knowing that.”

She playfully scoffs and leans against the tree. “You gonna wash your hair anytime soon?”

“Nah.”

“I’ll wash it for you.”

“Ain’t dirty.” He reaches for the arrow but she pulls her arm back. “You gonna give that back?”

“Nah.” She mocks him and places it behind her back.

“Girl.” He steps forward, until he’s right on top of her, looming over her small frame, right hand flat against the tree to support his weight.

Beth looks up, a smirk on her face, enjoying Daryl’s annoyance. She’s practically daring him to kiss her. He almost doesn’t want to give her the satisfaction, but she’s looking at him with those wide eyes and that stupid smirk, but he had a plan.

Daryl leans down and kisses her, his left hand sneaking around to her waist, fingers moving under her pink camisole. He hears the arrow drop to the forest floor, landing on a small pile of rocks, with her now free hand, Beth cups his face, running her soft skin against his prickly facial hair. They move against the tree, Daryl lightly running his tongue against her lips, hoping to give her what she wanted.

There’s a rustle from behind them, Daryl reluctantly pulls away, lifting his bow as he turns. Beth looks around his broad shoulders the best she can as he pulls the trigger, hitting the walker in the head.

“Guess we should get back, huh?” Beth asks quietly, lowering herself to grab the arrow from the ground.

“Guess so.”

-=-

Daryl Dixon was not the romantic type—never in his life did he think he would be sneaking some candles from the stash and heading to Beth’s cell in the middle of the night.  
There were four guard towers along the fences of the prison that they could actually get to, the fifth was in the back, surrounded by rocks and debris. The one next to the gate was their lookout, and the other two contained some of their automatic weapons in case they need to put up a fight. But Daryl had come across a pile of pillows and old quilts in the third tower, which was right in front of the garden. He figured it was where Glenn and Maggie came to fool around sometimes—even though he was sure they did it wherever they wanted.

“Ready?” He asks as Beth stands in front of her door, a smile on her face.

“Yeah, been ready for about an hour.”

It was Beth’s idea. Daryl had told her about the guard tower as a kind of ‘can you believe that, people are having sex in there’ thing, but then Beth said she wanted to go up there. Needless to say, he wasn’t really expecting that.

She looked different tonight—her hair was down and fluffy, the normal curls brushed out. She was wearing her long, yellow tank top over some black, stretchy pants that he was pretty sure belonged to Maggie at some point since they were folded over at her ankle and a little loose around her thighs.

Daryl opens the door and goes in first, knife at the ready. They’ve cleared this tower before, but he wasn’t going to risk it. He heads up the stairs and Beth follows.

The room is blank, painted the same color as the outside walls, a dingy gray. The floor is concrete, but is broken up by the quilts on the floor and the pillows against the wall. The large windows let in some light from the moon, but Daryl’s glad he brought the candles.

“It smells in here.” She laughs and walks over to the makeshift bed, toeing her shoes off.

Daryl doesn’t want to say that its’ probably Glenn’s cum, so he doesn’t, and instead keeps that beautiful image to himself. “Planning on staying?” He lights one of the candles and places it on the window sill across from the pile of blankets.

Beth smiles and nods. “Might as well. It’d be nice to sleep somewhere else for a change.”

He wasn’t going to let her sleep in here. He didn’t want her to get in trouble.

She sits down on the bed and pats the place next to her. “C’mon.”

He toes his own boots off as well before sitting down in the midst of the pillows, where the head of the bed would be. There’s no outside noise, the hissing of the walkers outside the gate had been cancelled out by the thick walls of the tower. Beth breathes, letting her breath out slow and steady as she looks at him, his skin purple-y in the moonlight. She imagines hers looks similar in hue.

Daryl watches as she moves to her knees and shuffles over the quilt before positioning herself in-between his folded knees, his sock feet near her shins. She slowly traces his dirt and sweat laden arms, strong and powerful. “Daryl.” There’s a hint of singsong in her quiet voice.

He’s not going to kiss her. If he starts this it might go too far, he’s not going to push her into anything.

She scoots closer, as close as she can get until she’s only inches from his face, her hand now on his bicep, lightly moving over the goosebumped skin. “Daryl.”

“What?”

Beth leans in and kisses him softly before pulling back and giving him a small smile. “We should.” She whispers.

And Daryl wants to ask her if she’s absolutely nuts, but doesn’t. “What?” He asks again, looking into her eyes the best he can.

“Have sex. It makes sense, don’t you think?”

It makes a lot of sense to him, of course he would love to have his way with her. “I don’t know, Beth.”

“You don’t want to?”

He’s silent for a minute, trying to figure out how to answer this. “No, I do.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“You’re sure?”

“Daryl I’m not a kid. I know what I want.”

His breath hitches in his throat and he watches as she moves her hands down to the hemline of her yellow tank top and slowly pushes it up until there’s just a sliver of skin showing. “Beth.”

“What?” She pulls it up a little more, right below her belly button.

“Stop.”

Beth’s face falls and she lets go of the yellow fabric. “Sorr—”

“I wanna do it.”

He leans in and kisses her; it’s soft. Beth cups his face, moving her fingers against his facial hair. It doesn’t take long before Beth starts to nibble at his bottom lip, begging to deepen the kiss.

Daryl’s fingers move swiftly to her tank top, he carefully moves under the thin fabric, applying his calloused finger tips to her soft skin. He could keep his hands there forever, just pressed lightly on her skin, feeling the warmth come off her body even though the temperature was slowly climbing inside this concrete room. He pulls back from their kiss, watching as he pulls the fabric up over her pale skin, she lifts her arms to help him. Then she’s kneeling there in her beige bra that looked to be a cup size too big, she looks like an angel. Her hair still poofy and her skin shiny with sweat, lips swollen. “Lay down.”

Beth moves from between his legs to the other side of the quilt, carefully putting a pillow behind her head. She takes a deep breath as Daryl moves on top of her, this time between her legs. He shrugs his kutte off, laying it on the ground next to her top, then starts to unbutton his flannel, watching as Beth scoots into place, watching his fingers. He tosses it in the pile when he gets it off and leans down, kissing her, moving his right hand down her chest to her pants. His fingers move beneath the stretchy fabric, just going in enough to feel the lacy waistband of her panties. He’s waiting for her to push him off, to tell him to stop. It doesn’t happen, instead she weaves her fingers through his hair and lifts her hips half an inch off the quilt so he can use his hand to pull the fabric down over her hips.

Daryl pulls back so he’s kneeling on his knees to take her pants all the way off, and gets a good look at her in her in her black underwear and beige bra. He’s quiet, taking it all in, even with a raging hard-on. Beth rises up on her elbows, looking at him looking at her. Zach never did this—he was more of a ‘get it in and get it done’ kind of guy, and that was fine, that was kind of what their relationship was. “You’re pretty.”

She blushes and thankfully with this light Daryl can’t see it. She pushes herself up, their faces only inches away, her legs still spread on either side of him. He leans in and kisses her, moving his hand around to her bra to unhook it. He’s not embarrassed when it takes him a few tries, it has been a while since Merle threw a girl at him in some dingy biker bar.

The bra falls from her arms and Daryl can’t help but look down. Her breasts are smaller than he’s used to, but they fit Beth just fine.

He’s not expecting it when she grabs his belt and quickly undoes it, tossing it in the direction of their other clothes before popping the button his jeans and pushing them down. She giggles a bit at his underwear—they’re bright blue, not what she was expecting. “Always thought those were Rick’s.”

“Don’t talk about him right now.”

She leans forward and kisses him again, deeper, her hands on both of his cheeks while she leans back; bringing him with her. With the hand that wasn’t supporting his weight, he moves down to the black fabric, fumbling past it to the inside of her thigh, lightly running his fingers on the soft skin. Beth lightly moans against his lips, moving her right hand down his neck, lightly rubbing at the skin. Daryl moves his hand up, rubbing at the black fabric, he could feel the wetness through it; he breaks the kiss so he can watch her as he slips a finger in, rubbing at the skin of her lips. Her breath catches in her throat as he moves his hand out, moving to the lace at the top and rolling it down on her hips. She moves her hips and legs so he can remove the godforsaken fabric to the pile beside them.

Then his fingers are back to her pussy, two of them moving up side-by-side on the lips as he pulls away from the kiss, watching her as he moves the two fingers to ghost over her clit.

“Daryl, please.” She whines, eyes closed, back flat against the softness of the quilts.

“You sure?” He asks one more time, moving his slick fingers up her thigh.

“Yes, just…come on.” She opens her eyes a little, looking at him. “I mean it.”

He nods and leans back, pushing his bright blue underwear down. They were his favorite pair but now that Beth was making fun of him, he might have to get rid of them. He doesn’t even bother pulling them all of the way off, instead he drops down over her, his left hand supporting himself above her as his right hand resting lightly on her hip as he pushed in slowly.

“Good?” He asks.

Beth leans up and kisses him, fingers going to his hair. “Yeah, just…go slow.”

-=-

Beth pulls her tank top from the pile shortly after, pulling it on as Daryl rolls over on his side, watching her in the candlelight. “You ain’t gonna ignore me are you?”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Nope. You aren’t gonna ignore me are you?”

“Maggie probably beat me if I tried.”

“She’ll probably beat you anyway.”

He sighs. “Prolly.”

“You should get dressed, I need to get back inside before daddy finds out I’m gone.”

-=-=-=-

The next couple of days go by without much going on, Daryl and Beth had met in the guard tower two times since the first night, the first time was just to talk, since they could hardly ever get a moment together, the second time was a less awkward sensual goodbye before Daryl left on a scouting mission with Glenn, Michonne, and Tyreese. There was a Supercenter that they wanted to check out; see if it was worth it.

Beth now knew what Maggie went through when Glenn went away on runs. She didn’t have enough of an emotional connection to Zach to worry this badly. Zach was kind of just there; the only real reason she agreed to be his girlfriend was because he was cute and they were about the same age. They didn’t have much in common other than a sex drive.  
But with Daryl, she found herself worrying every second she was awake, she could hardly keep her mind focused on anything but Daryl—what if something happens to him, what would she do without him. It was weird being this wrapped up in another person—especially Daryl.

Judith interrupted her thoughts by pointing to the door telling Beth she wanted to go outside.

“Wanna go see the piggies?” Beth asks.

“Gies!” Judith recites with a smile.

-=-

Judith thought the pigs were hilarious, every time one of them did something other than just stand in the mud she erupted in a fit of giggles, which made Hershel and Rick laugh too as they worked in the garden.

It’s not long until they hear the truck approaching the driveway, walkers moving quickly towards the vehicle, and Rick starting to run down to the gate to let them in before they had a buildup on their hands.

Beth watches patiently, trying to make out how many people are in the truck, she can see two in the front, but none in the back. Her heart beats a little faster, she knows she shouldn’t get worked up over something that’s that far away, besides the back windows on the truck are darker anyhow, not like she could see.

The truck pulls up the driveway, parking in front of the entrance to the prison, Rick jogging up behind them.

The two doors closest to Beth, the two she could see, open and Tyreese and Michonne climb out, both of them heading into the prison. Oh God, what if it was Glenn? Maggie would die. The driver door opens and the person gets out and Rick yells something at them before being cut off from view.

Judith pulls on her hand, causing her to look down. She’s pulled some grass out of the ground and is handing it to her. “Oh, thank you Jude.” She smiles, taking the few pieces of grass into her hand before looking up. Glenn, Rick, and Daryl are all walking towards them, Rick and Glenn are laughing and Daryl has his normal Daryl look on his face. Thank God no one was hurt.

“Boys.” Hershel smiles as they approach the garden. “Glad you made it back.”

“Thanks Hersh.” Glenn smiles. “Wasn’t too bad, actually. Lot of walkers at the Supercenter, but we’ve got it rigged like the Big Spot with the stereo to lead them away if we go back.”

“If?” Hershel asks. “It look run down?”

“No,” Daryl shakes his head. “All we saw was a broken window. No sign of anyone trying to get in. Too many walkers.”

“We’d need a big team; like all of us. If it’s still 100%, who knows what’s in there. It’s a huge store.” Glenn states, looking at Daryl.

“Need to get in and out quick. Divide and conquer—all that bullshit.” Daryl looks at Beth quickly. “Prolly have some baby stuff too, medicine, food. Toilet paper—that prison one-ply is the worst.”

“Yeah, a literal pain in the ass.” Glenn adds. “I think it’d be a lot of work, but we should try it. Get some of the new people to help, they need to learn this stuff, we can’t baby them forever.”

Rick nods. “We’ll take a vote, but I bet it passes. Sold me on the toilet paper.” He claps his hand on Daryl’s back before entering the garden. “We’ll do it tomorrow. It’s getting late.”

-=-

Daryl runs his finger along the bars of Beth’s cell as she writes in her journal. “Miss me?” He asks.

“No.” Beth continues writing in her journal.

“Damn.”

“I’m kidding, of course I did.” She closes the journal and looks up at him. “You miss me?”

“When I had the time.”

“Busy?”

He nods, moving into her doorway. “Glenn might be Asian but he sure ain’t that good with electronics.”

“Daryl.”

“Took him at least an hour to figure out how to hook up the damn speaker.”

“Least he did it.”

“Guess so.”

“I wanna go, Daryl.”

“Where?”

She sighs. “On the run. I’ve never been on one.”

Daryl shakes his head. “No way Hershel or Rick is gonna let you go.”

“Glenn said you’d need all the help you could get. I’m volunteering.”

“Don’t work like that, not with you.”

“You said there was baby stuff, who knows what Judith needs more than me? I’m with her every day all day. I can do this, Daryl. With how you’ve been training me. Please.”

Daryl knows she’s right, she could do it. It’s not like she’d be clearing the whole store by herself, she’d have someone with her. “I’ll talk to Rick. No promises.”

-=-

The next day Daryl prepares his argument to let Beth go with them on the run to the Supercenter. Truthfully, he didn’t want her to go, he would be distracted the whole time worrying about her even though he was well aware she could hold her own.

“Need to talk to you.” Daryl sits down in the council’s meeting room while Rick moves the chairs back into their spots. Sometimes the kids came in here to do school work. It didn’t happen often, but when it did the room was a disaster afterward.

“About?”

“The run.”

“Haven’t taken the vote yet.”

“I know.” Daryl moves in his chair. “Beth wants to go.”

Rick lets out a chuckle as he pushes Hershel’s chair in. “Why?”

“She knows what Judith needs, don’t she? She’s the one that watches her while we all go off and do other stuff. Do you even know what size clothes she wears?” Daryl asks, he doesn’t mean to sound rude; but he felt it was a valid question.

Rick supports himself on the chair; thinking. “No, I don’t.”

“See? She needs to come, knows exactly what she needs, probably knows what the other kids need, too. Toys and shit. She can handle it, Rick.”

“Who is gonna stay with her?”

“I will.”  
“No, I need you in the weapons department.”

“How you know there’s gonna be weapons?”

“It’s a Superstore in Georgia, Daryl, there’s gonna be some kind of weaponry. Not very good, but we’ll take what we can get.” He sighs. “She can go, but I’m putting Tyreese with her. She doesn’t leave his sight.”

“Fair enough.”

-=-

The run passed unanimously, not that it was surprising. They’ve taken on walkers in this amount before; getting to the prison, clearing it, going out on runs. It was a skill they had acquired.

The Supercenter was a little less than halfway from the prison to Macon. Michonne had passed it on her excursions out, but never went in because of the amount of walkers on the outside. In a way, it was a lot like the Big Spot, except no military safe zone outside its doors. Just a bunch of dead people guarding the entrance.

Daryl was leading the caravan of cars—three in total, not including his bike—to the Supercenter, it was easier that way, so he could weave in and out of broken down cars if need be. Beth wishes she was on the back of his bike, late spring air flowing through her hair, but instead she sat squished against Maggie in the back of Rick’s SUV.

There were five of them packed into this car, with Tyreese in the passenger seat and Glenn sitting next to Maggie.

The car behind them held Bob, Sasha, Michonne, and two others, and the car behind them was full of newcomers that volunteered; a grand total of sixteen.

-=-

With the radio playing some awful CD they found in a car luring the walkers away, they made it in the Supercenter without anyone dying. Hardly any of the walkers paid attention to them pulling their cars quietly into parking lot and as close to the door as possible. The ones that did were promptly killed off by Sasha’s assault rifle before they even thought about breaching the buffer zone.

The inside was another story, the Supercenter had become home to about two dozen walkers, they looked like people who had come in right when shit was hitting the fan to get supplies, only to be bitten before they could escape. There were items on the ground that supported this theory. Since they hadn’t eaten in a while, they were easy enough to kill, Beth even got in a headshot with her knife without anyone’s help; thankfully her knife didn’t get stuck this time.

They all stood in the main area of the Supercenter. It had two sets of electronic doors which they couldn’t get to budge, so they had to climb in through the broken window, it would make getting things out a little harder, but they had such good luck until now, it would almost be unfair for them not to have some trouble.

Sasha and two of the newcomers, David and Cara were standing at the door as guards, making sure nothing got in that wasn’t supposed to.

Rick and Glenn were on toilet paper duty, along with other cleaning supplies they might need at the prison.

Bob, Charlie, and Sierra were to get everything from the pharmacy as well as the items that Dr. S had listed for them so they could better stock the infirmary.

Michonne and Nadia were to get food; all of it. Anything that wasn’t opened or noticeably spoiled was coming with them.

Marc and Chloe were to get clothes, shoes, and check other places in the store for batteries when they were done.

Maggie and Daryl were on weapons and flashlights, which Daryl kind of dreaded. He liked Maggie, it was just awkward with Beth.

Beth and Tyreese were to get Judith new clothes first, stuff that would fit her now and stuff that would fit later. Batteries in the electronics were second on their list, and then if they had time they were to circle back to the baby stuff and load up on anything else Beth thought they might need; whether it be smaller clothes in case a new baby came, formula, diapers, anything.

-=-

Beth and Tyreese each had a cart, the wheels squeaking as they headed to the back of the store. She thought about running back there to get it done quicker, but she thought Tyreese would only want to run if necessary.

“What size she in?” Tyreese asks as they push their carts onto the carpeted areas that outlined the baby and child section.

Beth looks at the clothes, hardly touched. Judith was the first priority, but with everyone coupling up; Tyreese and Karen, Glenn and Maggie, some of the newcomers, there was bound to be a new baby at some point. “Just grab one of every size.”

“One of everything?” He asks.

She nods. “Yeah, you never know. Besides, when are we ever going to have luck this good again? We have nothing but room at the prison.”

“That’s true.”

They can hear Michonne and Nadia shoving things into their carts, the food section was right across from where they were, as Tyreese and Beth grab one of everything from the racks, shoving the items in their carts. Pajamas, socks, cute little dresses, jeans. Judith would be set for a while and they wouldn’t need to make clothes for her.

Beth looks up and across from the baby and toddler section is the intimates and sleepwear. No one even thought to grab this stuff, and if any of the other girls in the prison were like her, they were sick of wearing the same bra every day. They were right there, while Tyreese was grabbing some toys and smaller clothes just in case, she could easily run over there grab stuff for everyone—Daryl had said he hated the prison issue boxers, hence his beautiful blue boxer briefs he lifted from a house a while back.

As they got closer to the edge of the baby section, Beth turned to Tyreese as he was hurrying through the racks. “I have an idea.”

“What?” He asks with a laugh. “Am I going to get in trouble with Rick? I got strict orders to keep my eye on you.”

“No, it’s just.” She throws pair of dinosaur pajamas into the cart. “The girls need underwear, like bras and stuff, you know? No one thought to send someone to get them and they’re right there.”

“You want to take a detour?”

She nods. “It’s like five feet away from the baby toys, you could load up on that stuff and I can quickly go get some bras and stuff.”

He adds some more clothes to the basket. “Ten minutes.” He stops. “And then I’m coming to help you, those prison boxers make my thighs chafe.”

Beth smiles and takes her cart over to the underwear, throwing random stuff in. Packages of underwear in all different sizes, bras too. She knew Maggie was going to jump for joy when she saw the new stuff.

That’s when she saw them; a pair of white panties with little black motorcycles all over them. Daryl would love them; hell, she thought they were cute. And with the way the three pair she had were starting to get a little threadbare from constant wear, she thought they would be a major step up. She digs through and finds two pair in different sizes that could fit, because she had no idea what size she was anymore, and threw them in her bag. She looked through the other bins, finding stuff she knew she and Maggie (and grossly enough, Glenn) would like and tossed a few of those in her bag as well. There was nothing wrong with her taking a few nice things for herself and for Maggie.

She turns her back, looking at the brightly colored bras to see if she could find one that fit better than her beige one she stole from Maggie a while back when the clasps on hers broke. She finds a couple in white with brightly colored lace and really pretty aqua color when she senses Tyreese behind her. Her ten minutes were probably up and he wanted to get going.

But then she smells it—the unmistakable scent of rotting flesh and dried blood. She turns quickly, dropping the two bras to the ground and grabs her knife. Luckily, it’s on the other side of the cart, she could yell, Tyreese was twelve feet away throwing a baby doll in the cart for Judith, but she decides to take this on her own.

With her knife at the ready she pushes the cart at the walker, making it slightly lose its balance, but it’s not enough to knock it over like she planned. Instead, it snarls and reaches its hands at her as it walks around the cart.

She takes a deep breath out and lets it come to her before she grabs the collar of its blue work shirt and holds it steady as she shoves the knife in the temple with a loud groan. It falls on the cart, getting blood on some of the underwear packages when she pulls the knife out.

Beth pulls it off the cart, some of its rotting flesh getting caught on the wires. “Gross.” She wipes the blood off the knife on the walker’s shirt before putting it back in her holster and grabbing the bras off the floor when Tyreese walks over.

“Did this just happen?” He asks as Beth puts the bras in her pack.

“Yeah, it snuck up on me.” She breathes in deeply. “Took care of it.”

“Any more?”

She shakes her head. “Nope.”

Tyreese is visibly impressed, he saw her take one out earlier, but he didn’t know she had it in her to do it again. “Think you’ve had enough of privacy then. Let’s finish up here and move onto the batteries or Rick’ll kill us.”

-=-

Maggie hops over the counter back in the hunting section while Daryl watches. “It cleaned out?” Daryl asks, nodding his head towards the gun and ammo cabinet behind the counter. It was a little taller than Maggie and covered in glass. Inside were a couple of rifles used for hunting and the ammo for all of the guns in both that case and the guns under the glass that was built into the counter.

“Locked up.” She bends down to look under the counter. “Don’t see a key, one of those walkers outside probably has it.”

“It glass?” He asks.

“Think so. We could probably break it.”

Daryl nods and lays his crossbow on the counter before shrugging off his leather jacket and handing it to Maggie. “It’ll protect your arms.”

"Thanks." She nods and puts it on, a little taken back by how heavy it is. “How should I break it?”

“Use the butt of your gun, tap the glass.”

She pulls the gun out of the back of her pants and raises it to the glass.

“Wait.”

Maggie looks over as Daryl turns and heads down the aisle one up from where he was standing. “What?” He doesn’t answer, instead walks further down grabbing two pairs of safety glasses. He slips a pair on while he walks back up to her, extending the other pair. “Don’t want you to get glass in your eye.”

She breathes out a laugh and takes the glasses and slides them on. “Okay, ready?”

“Yep.”

She swings the butt against the glass, cracking it. “Easier than I thought.”

“Better you get cut on that than me.” Daryl grunts as she pushes her leather clad arm against the glass, pushing the shards inside.

“Such a gentleman.”

“You’re the one who hopped over that counter like a goddamn Easter bunny.”

Maggie rolls her eyes. “Bring that cart over here?”

Daryl does what he’s told, pushing the cart over to the counter as Maggie sticks her arm in and undoes the lock. “You do this, I’ll get some of them cleaning kits over there.”

“Good idea.”

They both do their respective jobs; Maggie carefully loading the cart with the cheap rifles and ammo, and Daryl grabbing what he could that was close enough by. He would’ve gone down the aisles, but he didn’t want to leave her by herself. He was pretty sure there were no walkers inside the store, they had all come to the front when they came busting in.

“Think I got it all.” Maggie climbs over the counter again. “No idea if any of this ammo will go with the stuff we’ve already got, but at least we have it.”

Daryl takes a quick look in the cart at the blue and red boxes of ammo sitting in the cart, mixed in with bullet pullers and cleaning wipes. “Should fit at least some of it.”

“Wanna see what else is around here?” She asks, grabbing the empty cart, leaving the heavy one for Daryl; she had done enough heavy lifting.

“Ain’t that our job?”

They head down the first aisle, it’s mostly sports equipment. Maggie throws a couple basketballs in the cart, the ones at the prison were deflated and at least fifteen years old. She watches Daryl walks in front of her, looking at things but not grabbing anything. She’s nosy and she knows she shouldn’t meddle, but her curiosity was getting the better of her. “Can I ask you somethin’, Daryl?”

“Somethin’ tells me you gonna ask even if I say no.”

“Is something going on with you and Beth?” She asks, turning away from him in case he turns around. She didn’t really want to see the annoyance on his face.

“What?” He asks with a laugh.

“You two hang out a lot, is all.”

“No, nothing.” He lies.

“Oh.” She grabs a blade sharpener off the shelf and throws it. “It’s just you two never really talked before.”

“Teaching her to use the bow, nothing else.” He lies again as he turns the corner to lead them into the next aisle. He was going to keep his relationship with Beth—whatever it was—to himself for now. He didn’t need Maggie breathing down his neck.

-=-

When Beth and Tyreese get to the front of the store, Rick and Glenn are packing their stuff into huge plastic bins.

“Find anything good?” Tyreese asks as he gets one from the pile for his and Beth’s loot.

“Yeah, toilet paper.” Glenn smiles as he rips into another package. “No more prison one-ply for a while.”

“Between that and the underwear Beth and I found, this is the best day my ass has had in a while.”

Beth laughs as she starts to take clothes off the hangers, throwing things into the bin.

It’s not long before more groups start to meet them in the front of the store and start loading their own hauls into the giant bins while Rick went around with a permanent marker and wrote what was in each bin and where they were to go when they unloaded back at the prison tonight. Clothes—laundry, weapons—front room, medicine—infirmary, toilet paper and cleaning supplies—laundry, food—kitchen, other (batteries, books, flashlights)—library.

-=-

The cars were full—too full, if that was even possible. They had one bin that didn’t have a place to go. Beth looks at the car she rode in on the way here and then looks at Rick. “If you put the seat down in our car, you can fit that last bin in.” She tells him. “The seats aren’t all connected, you can put one down without putting the other down.”

“Where are you gonna ride?” He asks. “Maggie’s lap?”

“I can ride on the back of Daryl’s bike.”

Rick looks over at Daryl. “That okay with you?”

“Don’t bother me. Rather it be her than Glenn.”

“Help me get this in the car then, Daryl? Then we’ll head out.”

-=-

“You good, girl?” Daryl asks as Beth climbs on, wrapping her arms around Daryl.

“Yep.” She smiles, sliding against Daryl, her pack and his crossbow heavy against her back. “Ready to get home and shower.”

He grunts as Rick honks the horn in his car, the signal it’s time to go.

Daryl heads out of the parking lot, speeding up as the walkers that had pushed themselves against the cars in the lot came stumbling towards them. Beth holds onto his middle as he makes the sharp turn up the small incline, stopping at the top to wait for Rick’s grandpa driving to catch up with him.

“I got you something.” Beth tells him over the loud engine.

“Don’t think I can fit in clothes made for Judith.”

“No!” She laughs. “But you’ll like it.”

“Ain’t nice to tease.”

“I’m not teasing.” Beth tells him as Rick finally makes it to the incline. “Guard tower, tomorrow night?” She asks as Daryl takes his feet off the concrete.

“Sounds good to me.”

-=-

“You’re with me today.” Maggie enters Beth’s cell and leans against the filing cabinet. “Rick said we have to go through all of the clothes. Sort and inventory.”  
Beth groans as she gets off her bed. “Lucky us.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot, too. And all of that underwear you scored for us? I’m so excited.” Maggie smiles.

“Actually, I was going to give you these last night but we got back late.” Beth lightly pushes her sister out of the way with a friendly shove and grabs her backpack, unzipping it to get to the pile of stuff she had grabbed for Maggie. Some of the stuff she had gotten her sister matched the stuff she got herself, it was just quicker that way, especially since her interruption by the walker and Tyreese being a couple feet away. She knew he wouldn’t ask questions about why she was shoving four sets of underwear in her bag at a time, but she felt that she had to get it done quickly so she could help Tyreese gather stuff for the guys, which is where she found the stuff for Daryl.

The excitement was still running through her when they got everything loaded into the front room of the prison. She wanted to go see Daryl, but Hershel had caught her when she was coming from getting a shower and wanted to know everything about the run.

By the time her daddy stopped asking questions, the candle in Daryl’s room was already out so she closed the privacy curtain to her room and went through the stuff she set aside for herself, Maggie, and Daryl. She put Maggie’s back in the bag and the others in her bottom file cabinet drawer where no one would find them.

“Hopefully they fit; I guessed.” She hands over the pile and rezips her bag.

“Bethie!” Maggie sets the pile on the cabinet’s top and starts looking through the stuff, holding it up so she can see it. “You’re so sneaky. Tyreese didn’t notice?”

“No.” Beth laughs. “Even if he did, I don’t think he’d care.”

“Thank you.” She smiles and hugs her sister, bright orange underwear in hand.

-=-

After they drop Maggie’s undergarments off in her cell, they head the laundry room where three and a half bins of stuff waited for them.

Beth slaps a notebook and a pen on the large table that stood in the middle of the laundry room. “You’re older, how are we doing this?”

“I guess just pick a bin and go through it. We have to remove all of the tags and stickers.” She pushes one of the blue bins over to the table and pops the lid, the bin is full to the top, she’s surprised the lid even went on. “This is going to take forever.”

-=-

Beth would take an item out of the bin, mark it down in the chart she made in her notebook, then hand it off to Maggie who would remove the stickers and tags, then add it to the pile on top of the washers; they’d fold everything in one go.

“Did you like going on the run?” Maggie finally asks after they had gotten a rhythm down. She knew Beth liked to get used to something before adding in the confusion of talking. Maggie used to annoy her when she did her homework by asking her questions while Beth sat at the kitchen table with her books sitting in front of her. Beth would start out asking Maggie to be quiet, and eventually it turned into a yelling match that Hershel and Annette had to break up while Shawn looked on laughing with Maggie at their annoyed little sister.

“Yeah, it was a nice change.” Beth picks up another shirt, a pink flowy tank top with grey hearts all over. She was probably going to try and get this one for herself. “I love Judith but there’s only so much I can take.”

Maggie laughs as she pulls the tag off another shirt and throwing it into a bag. “And you got to ride on the back of Daryl’s bike. That’s fun.”

“Yeah.” Beth didn’t say anything else, just slid the pink top over and pulled out another one. She knew where Maggie was going with this and honestly she didn’t want to talk about it.

“He’s been teaching how to use the bow?” She asks, looking over at her baby sister.

“Yeah, it’s not as easy as he makes it look.”

“You like him?”

“What?” Beth asks with a laugh.

“Daryl…do you like him?”

“He’s nice, yeah.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“We’re friends or whatever, Maggie. It’s nothing.”

“Okay.” Maggie mumbles.

-=-

It took nearly all day, with a small break for lunch, to go through all of the clothes in the laundry room. Beth’s arms hurt from folding and organizing, the lukewarm water from her after dinner shower helped a little, but not much.

Daryl had slipped her a note that said he would come by in about an hour and a half to get her so they could go to the guard tower.

Her bag was packed; candles, a lighter, and Daryl’s new underwear.

Beth had drawn the privacy curtain closed about twenty minutes ago, but still hadn’t decided what to wear over her motorcycle panties and new bra with the pink lace. She stood with her feet in the pink slippers Maggie had gotten her who knows how many months ago, looking in the mirror. It was weird to see herself in a bra that actually fit, it was weird to see the small, fading marks on her skin left by Daryl’s lips and teeth.

She can hear someone moving around outside her cell and decides she needs to get dressed now before someone barges in her room and sees her standing half naked staring at her love marks.

-=-

Daryl walks behind Beth, watching the braids in her ponytail bounce around from the rest of her hair. He couldn’t wait to touch it, her hair was always so soft and smelt like fresh picked raspberries and vanilla.

When she reached the door a couple steps before him, she turned and smiled widely at him. “You have the flashlight, you go first.”

He snorts. “More like you want me to go first in case there’s a walker.”

“Well you are a big strong manly man.” Beth teases as Daryl pulls on the handle to the door. “With your muscles and flannel and motorcycle.”

“Keep it up.” He teases right back, leading the way into the tower.

-=-

“You want your present now or later?” She asks as Daryl lights the three candles around the room.

“Ain’t you my present?” He asks.

“Well, I guess.” She smiles. “But I got you something at the store.”

“Don’t matter.” He hands her the lighter and toes his shoes off. “Didn’t need to get me anything.”

“You’re always getting me stuff, it’s my turn to get you something.” She drops the lighter in the bag. “Besides, you needed this.”

“Now’s fine.” Daryl wouldn’t admit it, but he was kind of excited. He couldn’t even remember the last time he got a gift.

“Thought so.” She digs in her bag and extends the package of boxer briefs to him. “I know it’s not much, but you said you hated the prison issue.”

Daryl smiles. “Thanks.” He never thought he would get this excited over underwear.

“You like ‘em?”

“One of Judith’s diapers would be better than the prison boxers, so yeah.”

-=-

“I got something else I think you’re going to like.” Beth tells him, dropping her bag on the floor.

“Yeah?” Daryl asks, dropping his package of underwear on top of her bag.

She nods. “Before I got those for you, I was looking at stuff for me.” She unbuttons her jeans and starts to shimmy them off. “And I saw these and I immediately thought of you.”

“Huh…” Daryl watches as she kicks off her jeans so she’s standing there in a loose tank and stripey socks that don’t match.

Beth pulls her tank top up, revealing her flat stomach and a white bra that nearly matched her skin. She feels a little strange standing in front of Daryl in her underwear while he’s fully clothed and staring at her.

He steps forward and places his hand on her hip, moving his thumb over the band. Just when he thought he’d hit his excitement over underwear for the day. “I like these.” He moves his other hand up and runs his finger over one of the small black motorcycles.

“You do?” She asks, moving her hands to his jeans, running her fingers over the frayed waistline.

Daryl chuckles a bit as she pops the button and unzips the zipper, letting the old jeans fall to the ground with a thud.

“No bright blue underwear?” She asks with a fake pout.

“They’re dirty, got prison issue on.”

She giggles as Daryl removes his hands from her hips and lifts his t-shirt over his head. It’s discarded to the floor quickly then his hands are back on her hips, guiding her over to the mess of blankets as they step out of their jeans, Beth looking down to make sure she doesn’t trip.

Daryl removes one hand and shoves his white boxers down before lowering himself onto the blankets, pulling her closer to him. “You ever been on top?” He asks, his voice low.

“What?” Beth asks. “No.”

“You wanna be?” He asks before pressing a kiss on her hip, right above the white band of her panties.


	2. for all the things my hands have held; the best by far is you

The prison is dark and heavy when Beth wakes up. The only light coming from a tall window in the main area of the cell block. It’s not much, but it allows her to get off her bed without injuring herself. 

There’s a turn in her stomach that rushes through her body. Her first instinct is the nonfunctioning toilet in her cell, she shoves the notebooks and knickknacks off, letting them clatter to the floor. She’s probably woken half the cell block now with the noise.

The first couple of lurches empty her stomach, the rabbit stew from dinner and the smooshed cookie she had as a midnight snack were gone. Then came the dry heaves until she worked up the energy to make it back to her bed. She’d have to clean the toilet tomorrow, she couldn’t exactly go rooting for some towels this late. 

-=-

Beth hadn’t been this sick in a while, the last time she could remember throwing up like this was when she was about ten or eleven and caught the flu from one of the kids at school. She was absolutely miserable and felt almost the same way as she feels now.

It was still early, the sun had risen and light was beginning to fill the cell block. Soon Carol would blow out the candles in the main room and people would start waking up, making their way outside for breakfast. Beth wasn’t even sure if she could eat right now she felt so bad, and the just the thought of squirrel made her want to throw up again. But it’s not like they could go to the supermarket and pick up some sausage or bacon—they had to ration what they had and eat mostly what Daryl caught; which was squirrel. 

She hears the sound of Daryl’s heavy steps coming down the stairs, one of the benefits of having a room near the staircase was getting to hear everyone come down, including Carl four times a night having to go to the bathroom. 

“You goin’ to breakfast?” Daryl’s at her cell door looking at her expectantly, his fingers gripping the cell bars.

“Are you?” 

“Headin’ that way now. Thought you’d wanna walk together or somethin’.” His cheeks turn a light pink, it’s barely noticeable under the slight sunburn and dirt. But Beth notices.  
“That’d be nice.” 

She moves her notebook aside and grabs her sweater before joining him at the door. They walk side by side to the kitchen, not saying much. It was always like this with Daryl, he’s quiet; he keeps to himself. Mostly just nods in agreement or shakes his head. They were opposites, but they worked. Daryl didn’t talk enough and Beth talked too much. Daryl was outwardly strong, he could fight his way through a dozen or so walkers, but inside, he was weak. Beth was outwardly weak compared to Maggie and Sasha, but inside she was strong.

“Did that soup make you sick last night?” She asks finally as they get their bowls of oatmeal. It doesn’t look that appetizing, but after last night’s puking session, she’ll take what she can get to fill her stomach. 

He looks at her quizzically before shaking his head. “Nah.” 

“Weird.” 

“You get sick?” 

She nods. “Late last night. Surprised you didn’t hear me knocking all my stuff over.” She smiles at him a little before grabbing a spoon. 

“Ya alright?” He looks genuinely concerned, his eyes looking into hers. 

“I feel better now, just a little tired.” 

He nods and leads her to a table outside where Rick was sitting with Judith on his lap and Carl at his side.

-=-

“You sure you’re feeling alright?” Daryl asks as they stomp through the forest, Beth had her knife at the ready as she followed Daryl a few feet behind, with the way her body was aching, it was hard to keep up. “Movin’ slow; usually you’re bouncing around.” 

“I’m okay.” She lies, she really doesn’t want to ruin this time with Daryl. 

“We can head back if you want.” He stops and turns to look at her. “Really don’t want to carry you, but I will if I have to.” 

She manages a smile. “Probably should then, I don’t think there’s anything out here anyway.” 

“Should get Dr. S to look at you, Beth. You aren’t looking too good.” 

-=-=-=-

It’s two weeks later when Beth starts to worry. She’s been getting sick nearly every morning and her jeans are getting just a little tighter, but she has been eating more. Daryl’s been sneaking her snacks he takes for himself on runs. Mostly it’s chips in weird flavors that she can’t decide if she likes or not, but sometimes he’ll bring her a packet of cookies and she’ll share a couple of them with him before he goes back to his cell and then she’ll ration the rest out for a while. A reward for getting through the day.

She’s only met a couple of pregnant ladies in her life, Lori being the closest to her. She always wanted to ask Lori what it was like to be pregnant, but never got to. She never really had that conversation with her mother either, they got to sex, never anything past it, that they would talk about that when Beth was married. 

She knows that Maggie has had a few scares and in this case, talking to her would probably be the best option. But she’s scared. She knows what happened to Lori and she most definitely doesn’t want that to happen to her. She made her choice in the bathroom of the farmhouse—she was living.

-=-

Maggie knew about Beth and Daryl. It wasn’t really that hard to figure out, they were always sneaking off to the guard tower or walking around the grounds together. Beth wouldn’t admit it, Maggie had tried to get to the bottom of it multiple times, but Beth always shrugged and said they were ‘friends’ and then went on about her business. She had tried to ask Daryl, but he just looked at her like she had four heads. 

But it’s not exactly surprising when she notices Beth out of the corner of her eye standing against the bars to her and Glenn’s cell. She’s slightly hidden by the privacy blanket, but Maggie had been around Beth for eighteen years now, and she’s done this ‘hide by the door’ thing for the past fourteen. At first it was because she was scared of the dark, so she’d stand outside Maggie’s door at eight in the evening, peeking her head around the door until Maggie would look up from her book and tell her to come in. At age ten, when Maggie was sixteen and starting to have more friends come over, Beth would stand outside and listen to their conversations. Eventually Maggie would yell at her to go away, which would lead to Beth running and crying to her mom and then Annette telling Maggie to let Beth sit in her room and be involved. 

Now Beth was lurking outside her room for God knows what reason. “Bethie? That you?” She calls.

Beth pokes her head around the corner. “Hey.”

“What’re you doing?”

“Just…seeing what you’re doing.” 

Maggie’s not stupid, she knows something up. “Well, I’m reading this Mark Twain book.” She lifts the cover so Beth can see. “I’ll be honest, it’s pretty boring.” 

“Did daddy suggest it?”

Maggie nods. “Yeah.”

“Should’ve known it’d be boring then.” 

Maggie laughs. “What’s going on with you?” She asks as she pats the bed next to her. “I heard you were sick.” Maggie runs her hand over Beth’s cheek. “Carl said you fainted while you were watching Judith.” 

Beth had gotten dizzy while changing Judith and almost fell. Luckily she gripped hard onto the table and was able to power through until she could sit. Carl was there to grab Judith from the table so she didn’t roll off and hurt herself. Carl told Rick and Rick told her to go back to her cell. Thankfully, he wasn’t mad. “I’m fine, Mag.” She insists as Maggie moves her hand to her forehead. “I didn’t faint, Carl was just being Carl. I got dizzy.” 

“I’m gonna get daddy to come look at you.” She stands up and starts to head for the door. “He’s much better at this stuff than I am.”

“Maggie, don’t.” 

Maggie to turns to face her, her dark hair hanging over her face. “Beth, if you’re sick we need—”

“I don’t think I’m sick.” 

Maggie looks at her baby sister, trying to figure what she means. 

“I think…”

“Beth.” She tilts her head. “No.” 

Beth nods. “I think so.” 

“Daryl?” Maggie knew it, she absolutely _knew_ it. 

Beth nods again, she could feel the tears starting to prick her eyes. It was believable now, before she could just pretend that things were fine; she just ate something weird. But now she had told Maggie, she couldn’t go back now. “What do I do?”

“Have you told him yet?”

“You’re the only one who knows.” 

Maggie sighs and sits back on the bed, grabbing Beth’s hand. “I’m going to go get him, you’ll tell him, then we’ll figure something out.”

“No!” Beth cries. 

“Beth, you have to tell him. He’s going to figure it out eventually.” 

“I don’t even know if I am.”

“Either you tell Daryl or I’ll tell daddy and he can tell Daryl when he’s beating him with his crutches.” 

Beth sighs, she knew Daryl was going to get an earful from their dad regardless of who told him, but she had to woman up and tell him. This was as much his problem as it was hers. “I’ll tell him tomorrow. I promise.”

Maggie nods and brings Beth to her chest, running her hands through her hair and pressing kisses to her forehead. 

-=-

Beth is cried out and asleep on Maggie when Glenn gets back, she asks him to carry her baby sister back to her cell. She’d tell him what’s going on eventually, she just couldn’t right now. 

-=-

Beth and Maggie head to Daryl’s cell after they’re done hanging the laundry. Beth goes first, tentatively, to his door. Maggie told her that she had to do this on her own, but she’d be on the catwalk just in case she needed to intervene. Maggie knew Daryl would never hurt Beth, but she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t stand there just in case. 

Daryl is sitting on his messy bed cleaning his crossbow. His room is pretty bare, just the bed, a few clothing items, and his crossbow. He didn’t collect stuff like the rest of them did. 

“Can I talk to you?” She asks.

Daryl looks up and nods, scooting over on the bed so she could sit. “What’s going on?”

Beth didn’t really plan this out. “I, uh,” She sighs, maybe it’d just be easier to get it out, even though she’s never been one for being bold and straight forward. “I think I’m pregnant.”

Daryl stares at her, completely dumbfounded. “Mine?”

“Yes yours.” Beth lightly scoffs. “Really?”

“I don’t know.” He turns his gaze to the blank wall in front of him. “Shit.”

“Can you try to get me a pregnancy test on the run?” She asks sweetly before grabbing his hand. “Please?”

He nods. “Yeah.” He didn’t want to think about Beth being pregnant. He figured eventually it’d happen, that’s just how these things worked, but he didn’t expect this soon. Hopefully she was just being a little dramatic and overly cautious. 

“I’m scared, Daryl.” 

Daryl doesn’t know what to say, because he’s scared too, so instead he presses to a kiss to the side of her head.

-=-

“You do know what they look like, right?” Maggie asks Daryl two nights later as she stands in the door to Beth’s cell. 

Daryl nods. “I’ve seen a pregnancy test before, Maggie.” 

“You have?” Beth asks.

“Not for me, Merle’s ex-girl always thought she was pregnant. Had a stash of ‘em under the bathroom sink.”

Beth’s kind of relieved that they weren’t from Daryl, she’s never really asked, but she’s pretty sure he hasn’t had a lot of girlfriends. 

“I’m gonna go to bed.” Maggie tells them. “I’ll talk to you in the morning.” 

“I should probably get some sleep, too.” Daryl tells Beth once Maggie leaves. “Run tomorrow.” 

Beth nods. “You could just stay here for the night.” 

“Don’t think Hershel’ll like that.”

“He doesn’t have to know.” Beth rubs her lips together. “Please?”

He sighs because he really can’t say no to her. “Fine.”

-=-

When Daryl returns from his cell he’s in a white prison issue tank top and plaid sleeping pants that Beth realizes are about a size too big. It’s endearing. She’s never seen him in anything but shirts with the sleeves ripped off and the same pair of jeans he’s had forever. 

“You sleep in jeans?” 

She should’ve been getting ready for bed while Daryl was, but instead took to her journal to write down her thoughts. She was finally sleeping with Daryl. All the times they had sex they had to quickly change and go back to acting like normal. They never got to sleep next to each other, it was a whole new level of intimacy. 

Beth shakes her head. “Time got away from me.”

“Oh.” Daryl climbs on the bed and scoots next to the wall. Beth turns away from him and starts unbuttoning her jeans. He tries really hard not to watch, but how could he not? She shoves them down past her hips, exposing her bright orange panties, before shimming the tight fabric down her legs, taking her woolen leg warmers with them. 

Daryl’s breath caught in his throat as she grabbed a pair of white, standard issue, boxers from the filing cabinet she used for drawers. “You okay?” She asks sweetly as she pulls them on, this time facing him. 

“Yeah, air’s different in here.” 

“Mhm.” She grabs the bottom of her shirt and pulls it over her head, exposing her white bra. Daryl pretended not to notice the small pink bow and matching dainty lace around the seams. The same one from the guard tower that she wore with those motorcycle print panties. He couldn’t think about that right now with the situation they were in, but damn it was tempting. 

“Must be those damn candles.”

“I have to see, Daryl.” She playfully rolls her eyes.

Daryl notices that her stomach is poking out a little more than normal, not that he’d ever say anything to her. He wasn’t eloquent, but he knew when to shut up. He was worried, Beth had already laid on a pretty convincing case that she was pregnant and seeing her normally flat stomach poke out even just the slightest sent his brain into overdrive. He wasn’t prepared to have a kid, and he damn well knew she wasn’t either. Sure she was great with Judith, but she’s eighteen and it’s not like they had a hospital they could take her to. And, he knew it was selfish, but he didn’t want her to end up like Lori. Again, something he would never mention. She unhooks the bra with ease and slides it off, laying it on the cabinet, before sliding on a tank top that matches Daryl’s and blows out the candle on top of the filing cabinet and makes her way carefully to the bed.

Daryl’s arm was stretched along the pillow so Beth made herself comfortable and faced him, resting her head on his arm. He actually smelled clean. Well, as clean as Daryl could be. She noticed in the light from the windows in the cellblock that he still had some dirt on his face and his hair was still a little greasy, but it was part of his charm. It would be weird to see Daryl stark clean with no trace of grime on him. 

It’s a little awkward at first, being this close together under some flowery sheets, Beth wasn’t sure where to put her arms and Daryl’s feet were so cold.

Daryl presses a kiss to her lips. “G’night.”

-=-

The next morning Beth woke up looking at the birdcage she kept in her room. Daryl was pressed up against her, his left hand just over where her tummy was starting to poke out just a little. She figured she could get used to this. Maybe not his snoring, but definitely waking up cuddled into him.

She has no idea when he’s supposed to meet up with Rick, Glenn, and Sasha for the run and at this moment, she doesn’t really care. She just wants to stay here for a little while longer. 

It doesn’t happen though, Daryl wakes up with a grunt. “Fuck. Gotta go get ready. Rick hates late.” 

Beth nods and starts to move, but Daryl climbs over her with ease. She’s grateful. 

“Be back inna minute.”

-=-

Daryl came back to her cell shortly after wearing his normal apparel. His crossbow was slung on his back and he had a messenger bag under it. He realizes that Beth has fallen back asleep. She’s moved into the warmth of his vacated spot and pulled her flowery sheet up to her nose, her blonde curls all over her face and pillow. He walks over and finds a place to sit on the bed, a small tiny space of room that hadn’t been occupied by Beth’s body. He didn’t want to wake her, if he had learned anything from Lori, it was that pregnant women needed their sleep. But he wanted to see her before he left, not to say goodbye, they both hated goodbyes, but just to tell her that he would see her later. 

Daryl reaches out and touches what he thinks to be her shoulder, it’s kind of hard to tell when she’s all wrapped up.

Beth flinches and her eyes burst open as she quickly moves closer to the wall, obviously frightened. “Gosh Daryl!” She whines, moving her hand above her heart. “I thought you were a walker.” 

Daryl lightly snorts, it is kind of funny. “Just me.”

“I’m glad you think it’s funny.” She sighs. “I thought you’d left.”

“Wanted to see if ya needed anything else?”

Beth nods her head a little, making her curls move a little out of her face. “If you could find something sweet or, like, gum, that’d be nice.” 

“Alright I can try. I’ll see you tonight.” 

“Okay. See ya tonight.” 

Daryl leans down and kisses her softly. 

-=-

The ride to the strip mall was quiet. Sasha and Glenn snored peacefully in the back, catching up on some much needed rest. Rick drove with his eyes on the road, Daryl noticed how he kept a mental record of landmarks they passed—his eyes would linger on it just a little longer and he’d nod to himself. He and Rick had that in common, always thinking one step ahead just in case the worst happened. 

Daryl couldn’t think of anything else but Beth and the possible baby. He wondered if Glenn knew, Maggie told him everything. He wondered what Hershel was going to think and how badly he was going to get yelled at for knocking up his baby daughter. 

He needed to talk to someone; someone who wasn’t Beth or Maggie, someone who was a parent. Rick would understand, after all, he’s the only one from the group had a child born after the world went to shit. But, it didn’t end well for him, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. Rick didn’t like to talk about Lori that much, it made him too sad, too…crazy. Maybe he wouldn’t understand.

Rick pulled into the parking lot of the strip mall to be met with a couple dozen walkers roaming around outside. This is not what Daryl needed right now. He reached back and shook Glenn’s knee to wake him up, he mumbled an expletive and then woke Sasha up. They were going to have to fight their way through. They could handle it. They’ve dealt with worse. 

It didn’t matter how long it took or how tired he was after, Daryl knew he needed to get in that dollar store. He had to take care of Beth; that was his job now. 

-=-

The store had been picked over, but not completely. Some kind soul had left some supplies for them, although it wasn’t much. They decided to divide and conquer, take anything they could possibly need. There were no set guidelines like the Supercenter, they hadn’t really planned this one out in as much detail. It was a smaller store, there were only four of them, and the outside made it look like it had been broken into on more than one occasion. 

Daryl wandered back through the health and beauty aisle, scanning the items. He knew he should be adding the toothpaste to his cart, but he had other things on his mind. The pregnancy test trumped everything else, including clean teeth. This aisle had barely been touched, toothbrushes and floss and shampoo were all neatly stacked. Daryl wasn’t surprised, it wouldn’t be the first aisle he’d hit usually. 

He was thankful things were neat, it made it easier to see. He just wanted to grab the stupid thing and get out. 

In a section next to lotion and tampons, he found a couple of stray pregnancy tests. He sighs picks one up, reading the back the best he could in the light to make sure this is what he was supposed to get. Beth needed to know and he didn’t want the wrath of the oldest Greene.

“That for Beth?” 

The voice scares him, catches him off guard, much like the touch did to Beth this morning. 

“What?” He plays it off with a slight laugh.

Rick steps closer. “If it was for Maggie, Glenn would be over here.” His voice is quiet, knowing that sounds carry in this small space. 

He wanted to ask why he thought it was for Beth, he was pretty sure that Maggie and maybe Glenn were the only people who knew, but decides against it. Earlier he wanted to talk to him about it, now he could. “Yeah. For Beth.” He grabs a couple more and tosses them in his bag. “Don’t tell nobody.”

“Who else knows?”

“Maggie.” Daryl grunts and grabs some lotion, Beth had mentioned her skin was dry. “Glenn maybe.” 

“I just got some stuff for Judith in the baby aisle, you might want to check it out.” That’s all he says before he goes off to help Sasha or Glenn with stuff the whole group needs; food, supplies. Not pregnancy tests or baby bottles. 

He’s thankful Rick doesn’t press him just yet, although he’s pretty sure the only reason behind that is because they were on a time crunch, not because Rick was feeling generous. He was absolutely sure he was going to get to play twenty questions with Officer Grimes sometime during the week. 

The baby aisle had been picked over, which didn’t really surprise him. Had this happened before the turn he would bet a thousand dollars that he didn’t have, that he would be down here or at some other store getting everything Beth and the baby could need. He really has no idea what a baby needs, he spends some time with Judith, but never really paid attention and he sure as hell never changed her diaper. When he and Maggie went into town, he was more the muscle behind the operation—Maggie the brains. She was the one who grabbed what Judith _needed_ , he just grabbed a doll and made sure Maggie came out of the daycare alive. 

He figures he might as well take it all, they’d use it eventually. Besides, Judith shit like a goose and Daryl was pretty sure if his kid was anything like him at all, they’d need all of the baby powder and rash cream they could get. 

-=-

It doesn’t take him long to deposit anything he can get his hands on into the cart. He puts a green fleece blanket in his bag along with some camouflage socks he found. The rest of the stuff went into the cart. Baby powder, a couple of teethers, some animal bowls. 

He takes one more look around and a small green rattle with an elephant on it catches his eye. He wasn’t sure how he missed it, with it being right in front of his face, but it made him smile and he was sure it was going to make Beth smile, too. 

His clothes and toys growing up were mostly Merle’s hand-me-downs and a few items his mom got from the thrift store; nothing was ever newly his as a kid. It was always someone else’s first. But that wasn’t going to be the case for his baby, this rattle was going to be theirs first. It wasn’t much, but considering the situation they were in, he thought it’d be as good as any. He opened the top to his bag and threw the rattle in on top of the pregnancy tests and cheap blanket. He look in the cart and grabbed the orange teether and a set of the pacifiers to throw in, too. It’s not like Judith didn’t have a bunch of her own.

-=-

After he had left the baby section, he decided to be of some use and grab what else he could. He made his way through the food aisle to see it had already been cleared, he saw Glenn over by the housewares; Sasha and Rick were up at the front of the store beginning to load things in. 

While walking through the cash registers, he noticed a few items that were placed there for impulse buying. There were a couple of packets of gum left on one of the shelves. Daryl didn’t even think twice, just grabbed them all. 

-=-

The ride home was a lot more tiring than the ride in. They had searched the other stores in the strip mall, but there wasn’t much. It was just a small family restaurant and an auto title place that they didn’t even bother going into, and a nail salon. But they scored big at the dollar store, the car’s trunk was stuffed full, they’d have enough food for about five days just from this trip and enough shampoo and conditioner to last them a couple of months if they rationed it right. It wasn’t the most useful thing, but it sure did help people feel normal. 

Rick had also found a box of chocolate bars under a register. He counted and figured there’d be enough for everyone in the group to have one, he’d hand the rest out in the morning. He winked at Daryl when he gave him two. Sasha had hers in the car, it’s amazing how good it smelled, but Daryl was going to give his to Beth. 

-=-

Daryl made his way to Beth’s cell when everything was inside. It wasn’t completely put away, but the time in car said it was close to 8, they could put the stuff away in the morning. Hershel liked to keep an inventory, anyway. He’d just take everything out to put it back. 

Beth is already ready for bed when Daryl comes to her door, she’s attempting to sew a hole up on a sock and lightly humming. Daryl thinks it’s a Christmas song, but he’s not sure. Wrong time of year for it if it is.

She looks up and smiles. “I thought you were back, I heard a car.”

“Whose sock is that?” 

“Daddy’s. He likes his new pair, but I’m still trying to practice, never really been good at sewing.”

“Looks good to me.” 

“You’re four feet away.” She teases and pats the bed next to her, telling him to come sit. “Besides, what do you know about sewing?”

“Not much.” He chuckles as he sits, setting his bag on his lap. “I got you something.” 

“You did?” She asks excitedly, immediately setting her sock down on the other side of her. 

Daryl opens his bag. “Ya gotta close your eyes and hold your hands out. I didn’t have time to wrap it.”

Beth laughs and he’s pretty sure that it’s the best thing he’s heard all week. She does what he says, she places her hands palm up on her lap and closes her eyes, but she’s still smiling. He places the gum, candy, and the two pen packs he found in the restaurant in her hands, he’d save the rattle and blanket for another time.

“Okay, you can open ‘em.”

She’s excited, that much he can tell. “Thank you, Daryl.” She smiles as she moves her hands so she can look at the items. “New pens, too?” She places the items on her lap and picks one of the packets up, scanning it over. “I can’t wait to test these out!” She rips the plastic open and selects one of the pens. “Can I write on you?”

“No. You nuts?” He laughs. “I got you three new notebooks. I ain’t one of ‘em.”

She laughs, too. “Thank you again, Daryl. These mean a lot to me.” 

Daryl doesn’t want to mention that they’re just candy and pens, but he doesn’t. “I got a test, too.”

Beth bites her lip. “Kinda forgot about that.”

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.” She sets her notebooks on the socks. “I’ll go get Maggie, then we’ll take it.” 

-=-

“I just pee on it, right?” Beth asks, staring at the white rectangle. She kind of wanted to throw up. 

“Yes, Beth.” Maggie sighs. “Then we wait three minutes.” 

“Where am I supposed to pee on it? I’m not _peeing on my floor._ ” 

“Bathroom’s too risky.” Daryl mutters. “Outside? Garden could use some waterin’.” 

“Gross!” Beth and Maggie exclaim at the same time. 

They stand there a minute, Beth nervously moving from side to side. “Let’s just go outside. It’ll be easier.” 

-=-

It’s positive. 

Beth shouldn’t be surprised, the signs were all there. Now it’s clear, she’s pregnant and they don’t have a baby doctor or sterile instruments. What if she needs a C-section like Lori or what happens if the baby is sick. There’s a hundred things going through her mind as she starts to sob. 

Daryl feels terrible, this is mostly his fault, he should’ve just minded his own business, shut it down before it went too far. He wasn’t strong enough to turn her away. 

Maggie quietly asks Beth if she should stay and Beth shakes her head, she just really wants to be alone right now. 

-=-

Daryl comes to Beth’s door after he stumbles out of bed. He cried last night, not that he’d admit it. It was fun picking out a blanket for the baby and a rattle when it wasn’t real, when it was just an idea; a what if. Now with the confirmation of the test and Beth’s symptoms, it’s real. He was going to be a dad, he _is_ a dad. It was time to step up, he was going to make sure everyone in this damn prison was prepared for this baby and could take care of Beth if she got separated from him or Hershel when she went into labor. What happened to Lori was not happening to Beth. He was going to make sure of that. 

She’s awake, working on the sock. No humming this time. Instead she focuses on each stitch, working her needle through the cotton. 

“You hungry?” He asks. 

She looks over and shrugs. “Don’t really feel like eating.” 

He doesn’t want to tell her that she _has_ to. “Maybe when you get over there you will.”

Beth nods and puts down the sock. “I guess I should eat anyway.”

“Yeah.” 

“We have to tell daddy.”

“I know.” 

“We should get it over with. After breakfast?”

Daryl sighs. “Fine.”

-=-

Hershel was in the garden after breakfast. Rick had gone in to check on Judith so it was just the three of them. 

“Good morning.” Hershel smiles as he plucks some spinach from the ground. 

“Morning daddy.” Beth smiles.

“You two usually aren’t out here.” He pushes himself up from the dirt and looks at his daughter.

“We need to talk to you.” Beth raises her right hand over her eyes to block the sun. 

“Oh no.” He teases. “What kind of trouble are you two in?” 

Beth takes a deep breath and Daryl can tell that she’s about to cry. “We messed up, daddy.” 

“Honey.” Hershel rubs her shoulder over the fence. “Hold on, I’m gonna come around the gate.” 

Daryl watches as Beth’s poor old dad hobbles through the gate and then to his weeping daughter. He just stands there, unsure of what to say. Beth latches onto Hershel, her arms tight around his middle. “She’s pregnant.” He knows Beth isn’t going to say it, she’s crying too hard, she’s too embarrassed—fuck, he doesn’t know. It’s just better that he say it.

“What?” Herschel asks in disbelief.

“I got Beth pregnant.” It’s the first time Daryl’s said it out loud. He got Beth pregnant. 

“ _You_?” 

“It’s-It’s my fault.” Disappointing Hershel felt horrible, he was like the father figure he never had growing up. Hershel had become everyone’s father—whether he liked it or not. 

“You’re right it’s your fault.” Hershel rubs Beth’s back the best he can. “Why don’t you go inside, Bethie? Get some water and take a break. Daryl and I are going to talk man-to man.”

Beth nods and wipes the tears from her eyes. “Yes, daddy.” 

Hershel presses a kiss to her head and sends her off to the prison, she squeezes Daryl’s hand as she goes. 

-=-

There wasn’t much talking. Hershel had hobbled back into the garden and was now tackling the rest of the peas. Daryl offered to help, but Hershel shook his head and declined. 

“I’m gonna take care of her.” Daryl finally says, hoping to get this show on the road. If Hershel was going to yell at him or hit him, he’d rather he do it sooner than later. He wanted to check on Beth.

“I know, son.” He drops a handful of peas into the basket next to him. “I know you care about her, I’ve noticed it for a while. Just because I’m missing a shin doesn’t mean I’m missing my eyes.” Hershel laughs for a minute, Daryl chuckles along, even though he’s a little confused. “You’re a good man, Daryl. I mean that.”

“Thanks.” It really does mean a lot coming for Herschel, especially after the news he just broke.

“Wasn’t so sure, back at the farm.” Hershel looks at him. “I remember hearing about you yelling at Carol and just in general being quite an unsavory individual. I knew you had it in you, to be a good person. I saw it in the way you tirelessly looked for Sophia, how you’d do anything—including steal Beth’s horse—to help out the people you didn’t even consider family. I had a talk similar to this with Glenn back at the farm and sadly I don’t have a Greene family heirloom to give you, but I can tell you what I told Glenn. There’s no man good enough for your little girl, until one is. I trust you, Daryl. I know that things in your life haven’t exactly gone your way, but I also know that you protect what’s yours.” He stops for a minute, resting his hands from his work. “Come help me up, son.” 

Daryl nods and walks into the gate, silently. Still thinking about Hershel’s words. He helps him up, holding him still as he Hershel gains his balance. “You good?” He asks, stepping away.

Hershel nods and positions himself. “It doesn’t mean I’m happy about her being pregnant. She’s eighteen, Daryl, she’s just entering young adulthood. She’s matured a lot, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready for this. It’s hard enough giving birth, then add no midwife or a hospital if something goes wrong. We’re luckier than most, we’ve got Caleb, but he’s no obstetrician, think he said he did orthopedics.”

Daryl has no idea what these big words coming out of Hershel’s mouth mean.

“We’ve seen what can happen.”

“I know—it’s not going to happen.”

Hershel smiles sympathetically. “You don’t know that.”

-=-

When Daryl gets to Beth’s cell she’s curled up in bed reading _The Prince and the Pauper_. Daryl walks in and climbs into bed with her, she scoots over to make room before dog earing the page and setting the book aside. 

“What’d he say?” She asks, moving so she’s lying on her side.

“Told me I was good man.”

“That’s true.”

Daryl pretends he doesn’t blush. “He didn’t yell.” 

Beth smiles. “I’ve only heard him really yell once.” 

“Yeah?”

“Way worse than anything you’ve ever heard at the farm.” She nods against his chest. “He and momma went into town for a church dinner and Maggie invited a boy over—she knew she wasn’t supposed to—and they came home early and found them making out on the couch.”

Daryl laughs a bit, he can only imagine pre-prison Hershel scolding Maggie. “Glad I wasn’t number two then.”

-=-

They stayed cuddle together for a little while longer until Daryl remembered he was supposed to meet some of the new guys to go hunting. They were running low on meat and while with the food they found at the dollar store and the supercenter would keep them going, that was really only supposed to supplement their meals. 

Daryl was in charge of hunting, he was the best at it. No one in their group even held a candle to Daryl’s ability to track and find them food, but he realized that he couldn’t do it alone. The animals were starting to move farther away from the prison and realistically they were going to need three or four guys going out to keep up with the amount Daryl was bringing in when food was closer. 

He had been working with these guys for a while, they were getting better but still made stupid mistakes that caused them to lose dinner. One even tripped over his own feet and scared off some birds.

They were tracking a wild boar, it was a little one, probably just over a year. Daryl almost thought about going after this one alone because the idea of having pork tonight sounded real good to him, but he knew these idiots with him needed the practice. He’d deal with them if they fucked this up. It wasn’t just about him now, he had to keep Beth fed now. And while he would happily go hungry for Beth, he doubted the rest of the prison would feel the same way.

He motions for the tallest, his name was Marc, to come around beside him. Marc was the only one that Daryl had had the time to train on his crossbow and honestly he wasn’t a bad shot. They were behind a tree and they had a good position to shoot the damn thing. He hands over his crossbow. “Aim for the head.” 

Marc nods and positions the crossbow before shooting an arrow into the back of the boar’s head. It falls over immediately and Daryl couldn’t be prouder or happier. 

-=-

Daryl had dropped the meat off with Marc’s help and asked Carol what she was planning on cooking. Fire roasted boar, mashed potatoes (made with the instant flakes they found on the supply run) and some of Carol’s crispy white bread. He was getting excited just thinking about it. It was a nice change from the copious amounts of squirrel they had been eating. Carol then shooed him away so she could go gather kids to teach them how to cook on an open flame.

-=-

Daryl popped his head around the privacy curtain in Beth’s cell to see her with her shirt rolled up right under her breasts, revealing her belly. She lightly poked at it before pumping some of the lotion Daryl had gotten her into her hand and rubbing it lightly over her pale skin. 

“I’m back.” He announces, still standing outside her cell door. He wasn’t sure if he was just _allowed_ to come in when he wanted. 

Beth turns around and smiles, still rubbing her tummy. “Get anything good?”

“That Marc kid got a boar.”

A small whimper escapes from her lips. “Are we having it tonight?” 

“Carol’s cooking it up now.” 

Her smile gets even bigger. “It’s sad that I’m this excited about boar meat.” 

“Better than squirrel, ‘spose.” 

She nods. “You can come in Daryl, you don’t have to stand in the doorframe.”

Daryl comes in and sits on her bed, watching as she gets another half-pump of lotion. “What’s that for?”

“The lotion?”

He nods. 

“Keep my skin moisturized so it doesn’t get itchy. My aunt used to apply lotion on her belly all the time when she was pregnant, she said it made her feel better.” She finishes  
applying it to her belly and then rubs the excess on her arms. 

“Glad you know this stuff, cause I sure as hell don’t.” 

Beth could sense his nervousness, she walks over to him, positioning herself between his legs, and runs her fingers through his hair. “It’s gonna be okay. We have daddy, and Rick, they can help you. And Carol had Sophia, plus she was helping with…” She takes a deep breath. “We have a doctor, too. I never expected it to be like this when I was little, but…I have faith, Daryl. You, me, and the baby, we’re gonna be fine.” 

Daryl pulls her closer by her hips and hugs her around her middle, his cheek resting against her tiny bump. 

-=-

It takes Daryl a couple of days, but he finally works up the courage to talk to Rick. He had asked Beth if he could, he didn’t want to give out more information than she was willing to share, but he already probably knew anyway. He had saw him take the test from the dollar store. Surprisingly, Rick hadn’t come to talk to him, Daryl just let it be until he was ready to talk.

“Can I talk to you?” He asks, leaning against the fence to the garden. It really seemed like he never left. 

Rick nods. “Of course, Daryl.” 

“She’s pregnant.”

It’s quiet as Rick gets up, running his left hand through his wavy hair. He had that look—that crazy Rick look where his eyes change and they focus on something that only he can see. 

“I shouldn’t have come to you—I just.” He stops and watches as Rick walks over to the gate. 

“It’ll be different this time.” 

Daryl is confused by what Rick means. “Rick.”

“We aren’t taking any chances—not with her. I’ll get the doctor, we work something out.” Rick points to himself and to Daryl.

“Everyone knows what to do.” Daryl adds.

“Exactly. Everyone knows what to do when she goes into labor. It’s not a discussion. Beth has the baby and lives.”

And Daryl is so glad that he and Rick see eye-to-eye on this, people respected Rick, he was, despite his protests, their leader. 

-=-

The next day Beth and Daryl wandered into the infirmary. Neither one had been in this part of the prison since the group was clearing it out, and definitely hadn’t been here since Dr. S had taken over and started to take inventory and get the place working. 

It’s a nice sized room, open and airy with three beds under a large, iron barred window. Across from the beds is a wall of cabinets that contained gloves and gauze—stuff that wasn’t dangerous if a prisoner took it. There were two wheelchairs pushed against the far wall where the heavy, barred door to where the medicine and sharp objects were kept. There was also a comfortable chair in the corner, probably for an officer, and one rolling stool tucked under the counter, with the other near the beds. Between the center bed and the bed closest to the door into the small room was an old scale and an eye chart. 

Food trays were gathered around the center bed with unlit candles from the stash on them, a lighter and a box of matches lay neatly beside them. 

“Right on time.” Dr. S smiles as he enters through the door from the pharmacy area. “Beth and Daryl, right?”

Beth nods. “Yeah, Rick set this up.” 

He nods. “Alright, Beth I’ll have you sit on the middle bed and Daryl you can grab that stool if you want,” He points to one of the rolling stools with his thumb. “or you can stand, either one is fine with me. This could take a while though, so sitting could be easier.” 

“Any idea how far along you are?” He asks as Beth sits on the bed while Daryl goes and gets the stool.

“A month and half or two? I wrote down when Daryl and I had sex in my journal, but the dates could be wrong.”

Dr. S nods. “Daryl, do you mind grabbing me a notebook from that first drawer while you’re over there?” He asks. 

Daryl opens the drawer and pulls out the first notebook he sees before taking it and the stool over to Dr. S. 

“Thank you.” He flips in a couple of a pages before setting it on the other bed and sitting down on the stool. “What’s your last name, Beth? Just so it’s easier for me to find you our next visit. Dixon? Like Daryl’s?”

Beth looks down. “No, it’s Greene. E on the end.” She’d very much like to be a Dixon, some day. But part of her was still holding on to that pre-turn traditionalism that was she was brought up on. She knew Daryl couldn’t exactly go down to the jewelry store and buy her a cheap ring, but she at least wanted to be asked. 

He nods and scribbles something down on the sheet of paper. “Okay, Beth Greene, I’m going to go ahead and weigh you, then I’ll check your cervix, make sure you’re actually pregnant. Rick said you took a test but who knows how old that thing was, right?”

-=-

“You’re not a baby doctor?” Beth asks, confused as Dr. S washes his hands.

“No, but I did go to medical school and I know it would be more of a comfort to you if I was, but I’m not.” He walks back over and sits on his stool. “In medical school, we have to learn a lot of _stuff_ , bones and the Latin terms for body parts, but we also learn a little bit of everything, too. I took some classes and they taught me about childbirth, for example, so while it’s not my specialty, I have an idea of what to do. I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you have a safe delivery, Beth.”

Beth nods. “That helps a little.”

“I’m glad.” He pats her knee. “I’ll also talk to your dad, I know he has a little more experience in the birth department.”

-=-

It’s after lunch when Daryl enters the cellblock. He had spent an hour and a half tracking a deer, only for it to lose him in the woods thanks to some biter tripping over a branch right when he went to shoot it. He’s pissed and slams the door a little, which he immediately regrets. It reminds him of his father, when he slammed the door when he got home, Daryl knew he was in for it if he didn’t run to the shoebox he called his room and didn’t come out for the night. Sometimes his dad would come in and rile him up, but mostly the old drunk just sat in his easy chair and got loaded on that week’s grocery money. 

As he’s passing the cellblock’s bathroom, he hears the sound of someone gagging and then coughing. His first instinct is Beth. He remembers how Lori threw up all the time when they were on the move, even when she didn’t have anything to throw up. 

He slowly makes his way in, avoiding looking in the shower area, and instead making his way to the stalls. He sees her in the first one, her kneeling over the toilet. Her ripped jeans gave her away. “Beth?”

“Dar—?” She asks before heaving once again. 

“Unlock the door.” He stands off to the side, waiting as she continues to throw up. She starts to cough before the lock opens and she pushes it towards him. He kneels down behind her, moving her hair out of her face. “Hey, you want Maggie or somethin’?” 

She shakes her head. “I think I’m done. Can you help me up?” 

Daryl stands up and carefully helps her up, trying not to look in the toilet. Blood and guts were one thing—vomit was another. He quickly escorts her out before flushing the toilet quickly. He’d take her to bed and come back and quickly clean this, he was pretty sure no one else in the prison wanted that job and he wasn’t going to make Beth do it, she has enough going on without adding a vomity toilet on top of it. “Let’s get you to bed.” 

“I’m not tired.” 

“You need to relax.” Daryl leads her out of the bathroom. 

“But Judith—”

“Will be fine without you for a couple hours.” 

She nods, because she knows, thankfully, Daryl isn’t going to take no for an aswer. “Okay.” 

They go back to her cell, Beth slightly leaning on Daryl. He’s babying her, she knows that and he knows that, but Daryl figured Beth deserves to be taken care of. Besides, she can’t exactly watch Judith if she’s throwing up constantly. 

“Will you stay?” She asks as she plops on her bed and starts to toe her boots off. “Just for a while? I know you’re supposed to be helping daddy with the new garden fence, but…” She trails off and he swears if she pouts he’s going to have a hard time ever saying no to her. 

“Not too long.” He sighs, toeing his own shoes off and kicking them over by the creepy gnome she kept her room. “Your dad wants that fence done by tomorrow so he can plant okra or something.” He also had to go clean that bathroom up, too. 

“He’s planting tomatoes, too.” She smiles as she climbs in the bed, moving towards the wall, lightly patting the space to next her. 

“Ain’t there already tomatoes out there?” Daryl asks as he climbs into the bed, he’s nearly hanging off the edge when he lies down next to Beth.

“Mhm.” She fumbles with a packet of gum she stuck between the mattress on the top bunk and the metal pieces that held it up. “Rick found more seeds, though.” She takes a piece out and pops it in her mouth before getting another and handing it to Daryl. “Tomatoes go with anything, really, so he wants more.” 

“Glad you know this.” Daryl pops the hard-shelled gum into his mouth as Beth moves his arm around her and cuddles into his side, resting her head just above her armpit. He’s glad he remembered deodorant this morning. “Didn’t sign up for no cuddling.” He teases her.

She giggles against his shirt. “Yeah you did.” She drapes her arm around his torso and looks up at him.

“When?”

“When you knocked me up.” She has a half-smile on her face, enjoying watching him squirm a little. 

“Guess you’re right.” He sighs and pulls her closer. “Don’t tell nobody. Got a reputation to uphold, don’t want ‘em thinkin’ I’m soft.” 

“Wouldn’t want that.” Beth teases as she lies her head back down. 

They lie cuddled together for about ten minutes, Beth half asleep chewing her gum and Daryl looking around her cell. He wonders if he’ll be a good dad, if despite his upbringing he can care for and show the love to this kid that his father never showed him. “Ain’t gonna be like him.” He mumbles to himself, just so he can hear it. 

“What?” Beth asks quietly from his chest, looking up at him with tired eyes. 

“Nothin’.” 

“No, you said something, tell me.” 

“You need to take a nap, don’t need to hear my ramblin’.” 

“I want to.” 

“Ain’t gonna be like my dad. Ain’t gonna hit you or the kid.” He mumbles quietly. 

“I know, Daryl.” Beth sits up, her head almost hitting the top bunk. “I’ve never met him, but I know you’re not like him.” She grabs his hand, studying the dirt and his calloused skin. “You protect everyone here, your daddy never protected you or Merle, you’re already better than him. And the way you are with Judith, there’s no doubt in my mind you’re going to be a great father.”

Daryl shrugs it off, but he’s relieved to hear Beth say that. “I should go help your dad.” 

-=-

It’s been a month and a half and it was now becoming evident that it was summertime in Georgia. They had spent the last month harvesting the spring vegetables from the garden to store them away for use during the summer and fall. 

The apple trees Rick had planted a little farther back from the garden were starting mature, they wouldn’t be ready to harvest for at least another two months, but they were looking hopeful. Beth had been wanting apples real bad, asking Daryl to check the trees every day. He knew there wouldn’t be any, but he did it anyway. He’d bring her back a couple of peaches to help with her fruit craving. 

Beth was now around fourteen weeks along, according to Dr. S, that meant that she was now in her second trimester and the baby would be born in the winter. Her belly had doubled in size from when she first found out she was pregnant, but she was feeling good. She finally had the energy to run after Judith again and wasn’t throwing up all the time.  
Daryl was still training Marc how to hunt, but let him go off on his own some days so he could help Hershel in the garden. They had even found an old crossbow on a run for him to use so Daryl could keep his close in case something happened. 

Hershel just happened to look up when he saw Beth coming down the hill with Judith on her hip and a large water bottle in her hand. “Here she comes.” He laughs. “What a sight.”

“Yeah.” Daryl looks up and smiles to himself, on days like this when he was working all day he loved to see her, she looked radiant, really. The sun shining off her blonde locks, her white top flowing in the gusts of the warm wind, making her growing belly more prominent. 

“Thought you might need a water refill.” She smiles when she gets to the garden. “It’s hot out here, the thermostat says it’s about eighty. Don’t want you two getting dehydrated.”  
“Thank you Bethie.” Hershel smiles and continues to tend his crops. 

“Judith wanted to see the goats, too. Will you show her Daryl? I’ll fill these bottles up and then we’ll be out of your hair.”

Daryl walks through the gate and over to Beth, kissing her cheek as he takes Judith. “Thank you.” 

She smiles as she grabs a Daryl’s bottle from its perch on top of the fence and begins to fill it with the water she brought. She couldn’t help but notice how sweet Daryl was being with Judith, how he bent down next to the nanny goat and guided her hand so she could pet it, causing her to erupt in a fit of giggles at the fur’s texture.  
Beth was glad that of all the men at the prison that Daryl was going to be her baby’s father. 

“What’re you harvesting, daddy?” Beth asks as she screws the top back on Daryl’s bottle and grabs her fathers. 

“Peppers. Nice green ones.” He holds one up so Beth could see. “Carol and Maggie were talking about stuffing ‘em full of rice and whatever else they can get their hands on.”

“That sounds yummy.” She smiles as she fills her dad’s water bottle. 

“How’re you feeling, honey?” He asks.

“Haven’t gotten sick in a week, my longest streak yet.” She laughs. “But I’m feeling good otherwise.”

“That’s good to hear Bethie. I worry about you.”

“I’m fine daddy, really.” She insists, twisting the cap on his bottle. “I should get her back inside, it’s almost snack time.” 

She takes the refill bottle and walks over to the goats where Daryl had Judith sitting on one’s back, like it was a little horse. The old goat didn’t seem to care, he was pretty laid back and was really only there so they could impregnate the nanny. 

“She having fun?” Beth asks. 

“Seems to be.” Daryl looks at her. “She likes the goats.”

“Least she isn’t afraid of ‘em. Judith, you ready for a snack? I think we have some granola bars left.” 

“Snack!” Judith squeals excitedly, wiggling around in Daryl’s grip as he lifted her off the goat. 

-=-

Beth couldn’t sleep, she had been trying for about an hour when she finally gave up and made her way up the stairs and down the catwalk to where Daryl’s cell was.  
He wasn’t asleep either, instead he sat on the floor across from his bed with a candle beside him, wood shavings littering the floor as he whittled new arrows from pieces of left over wood.

“Hey.” 

He looks over and smiles, just a little bit. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?” 

“Shouldn’t you?” 

He pats the concrete next to him, signaling for her to sit down next to him.

“That’s not going to happen. I won’t be able to get back up.” She smiles and walks over to his bed and plops down. 

“You ain’t that far along yet.” Daryl gets up and walks over to the bed. 

She shrugs. “Still impossible to get up, Judith and I play on the tables now.” She leans back, putting her arms behind her to prop her up. She was so exhausted, but couldn’t fall asleep. There’s a bump under the army green blanket that was slightly scratchy, Beth didn’t know how Daryl slept with it. “What’s under your blanket?”

“What?” 

“There’s a lump.” She moves her body so she’s more on the bed before pulling the messy blanket towards her so she could see. There’s a small, green blanket, still wrapped in a bow and a cardboard backing from the store, pushed slightly against the wall. She grabs it. “Daryl, why didn’t you unwrap this?” She asks with a laugh before looking it at. It’s a baby blanket, plain mint green and cozy warm. 

“It’s for the kid.” He rubs the back of his neck, uneasy with her discovery. This isn’t how he wanted to give it to her. He had put it there to hide it, obviously he didn’t do a good job. “Got it when I got you the test. Rick saw me grabbing the test and told me where the baby aisle was so I could get it some stuff.” 

She smiles and runs her fingers along the warm fabric, she thinks its fleece, a cheaper version of fleece, at least. “I think they’ll like it. It’ll be nice and warm.” 

He figures he might as well give her the rattle, too. “I, uh,” He moves to the side and reaches for something on the top bunk, his shirt riding up a little. Beth resists the urge to tickle the exposed flesh. “found this, too.” He steps back and hands her the rattle he had shoved under some old towels. “I know it ain’t much.” 

“Daryl.”

“But the kid should have something of its own, not just Judith’s hand-me-downs.” 

“You didn’t tell me?” She asks.

“I was thinking of some way to give them to you that was special.”

Beth isn’t sure what does it, but she starts sobbing, holding the blanket and rattle against her chest. “I’m sorry.” She cries, lightly wiping at her eyes. “I ruined the surprise.”

Daryl sits down next to her and pulls her into his chest. “You didn’t ruin anything, it’s fine Beth.” 

“But you wanted it to be a surprise.”

He can’t help but chuckle a bit at Beth crying over finding a baby blanket. “It’s fine, Beth. You’re just tired, let’s go to sleep.”

-=-=-

Daryl had a surprise for Beth—since she had ruined the other one—he had spent all day on it and had gotten some of the people in their cell block to help out. He had cleaned his cell and was asking Beth to move in with him. It made sense, his cell didn’t have anything in it so taking the bunk beds apart to make a bed like Glenn and Maggie had would be easier. 

He got Maggie to stay with Beth all day, taking her out to the fruit trees with Judith or getting her to help with laundry. Then he recruited Glenn to help him take the beds down and set them up. Then he cleaned, got down on his hands and knees, and made sure it was nice for Beth. 

Beth is holding Judith on her lap when Daryl comes to get her in the common area outside of the cell block, they’re at a table and Judith is violently moving an orange crayon across a piece of paper to join in with matching purple and blue lines. “That’s pretty, Judith.” Daryl comments as he sits down on the seat closest to them. 

“I asked her who it’s for and she said you.” Actually it was more like Dur but they had learned that meant Daryl. 

“I’ll have to hang it up.” 

Beth smiles. “What are you doing in here? Maggie said you were helping Carol clean a deer.” 

“I want to show you somethin’.” 

“If it’s the dead deer I don’t want to see it.” 

“It’s not. You’ll like it.” 

“She’s gonna have to come with us.”

“I’ll take her.” 

-=-

“Close your eyes.” Daryl tells her after they climb the stairs in the cellblock. It kind of ruined the surprise of it, but the last thing he needed was Beth falling down the stairs.

“Daryl…”

“C’mon.”

Beth closes her eyes and allows Daryl to grab her hand and lead her down the catwalk. She could hear the sounds of his boots against the metal floor and Judith’s cheerful babbles. 

When Beth is in front of the cell door he tells her to open her eyes and watches her face. She’s confused. Her eyes squint a little; noticing his room is actually neat and there isn’t a lingering smell of…gross, is the only way Beth knows to describe it. There’s no more bunk beds, instead they had been taken down and assembled into a double bed like Maggie and Glenn had, it was pushed against the back wall, almost in the corner, except there was a gap where a wooden board is over the toilet as an end table, there’s an old crate on the other side that had been flipped onto its side as an end table. His filing cabinet is pushed on the right side wall, with a space for another one. And Judith’s old pack and play is pushed against the privacy curtain that hung in front of the bars. “What is this?” She asks, trying to hide her smile, because she _knows_ what this is and she’s been waiting for him to ask since they found out she was pregnant. 

“You should move up here.” 

“You really want that?” She asks, walking into the room and touching the soft blanket on the bed. 

“Yeah.” He tells her honestly, putting Judith down. “Makes sense with the baby comin’.” 

She nods. “Yeah, you’re right.” 

“And I like being around you.”

Beth smiles. “I guess I like being around you enough to move up here.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’ll be nice. You did a really good job, Daryl.”

-=-

Daryl was sitting on the bottom bunk in Beth’s old cell, they were finally getting around to sorting through what she needed upstairs. He wasn’t really helping though, just watching as she set an old box on the bare mattress. 

It was exceptionally hot so Beth had her shirt tied up with her growing belly sticking out, Daryl couldn’t keep his eyes off it. He had seen Lori’s bump grow but he never allowed himself to really look at it, he didn’t want to come off as disrespectful to Rick, especially after what happened with Shane. He allowed himself to feel her tummy twice after she insisted with ‘come on, Daryl when are you ever going to get to feel a baby move again?’ but only after he made sure it was okay with Rick. 

But with Beth it was different, Beth was…whatever she was to him, that was his baby growing in there and Beth was very vocal about wanting Daryl to feel her belly, not that he could feel anything and probably wouldn’t for a while. Beth also couldn’t really feel anything more than whatever feeling she got from just being pregnant.  
While she was grabbing something off the top bunk, Daryl grabbed her hips and pressed a kiss right above her belly button. 

“Your lips are hot.” 

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She smiles at him. “And your scruff tickles.” 

“Mmm.”

“Gonna be weird having all that room in bed.” 

“You say that now, just wait until we get my pillows up there.” 

-=-=-=-

Beth felt horrible. Her back hurt, her feet hurt, her head hurt. And Judith was just making it worse. She had shoved the screaming child into Carol’s arms and headed back to her and Daryl’s cell quietly. She needed a nap or the grace of God to help her get through this. She wasn’t even halfway into it yet, she couldn’t imagine this getting much worse.

She plops onto her side of the bed, the right side, because it was easier to get out of, and rests her head on the pillow. She could hear the echoes of Judith’s fit from downstairs, but luckily the blanket on the door was buffering it a little. 

There was a part of her that felt bad for just handing Judith off like that, taking care of Judith was her job, just like hunting was Daryl’s and farming was her daddy’s, and floating from job to job was Maggie’s. But the other part told her that while they all had their jobs, they were all supposed to help each other when they could. 

She flips to her side, facing the empty space where Daryl is usually sprawled out, left hand behind his head as he looks over at her and tells her something like ‘girl, you are so beautiful’ and Beth giggles and pulls the sheet up to her nose to hide her blushing. It’s weird being in bed without him, she’s probably not going to be able to nap, even if she is dead tired. 

It’s then when she’s feels the tiniest of flutters in her belly, on the left side. She doesn’t register it at first, opting to daydream about Daryl and what he’s doing right now, but then it happens again in the same spot. 

“Oh hey.” She places her hand over the spot. “Is that you little guy?” She asks. “Or little girl, I guess.” 

It doesn’t happen again, but her energy level rises with the excitement she just felt.

-=-

Summer came and went quickly and fall was approaching. The apples were just about ready and Daryl couldn’t wait to bring some to Beth. The rest of their crops were coming in good, too; they wouldn’t starve during the winter if they kept their rations the same. 

Having four guys going out to hunt was really beneficial as well, and as fall approached and the normal hunting season began, Daryl just knew they’d have enough meat to last them if they smoked and dried it properly. Luckily this is how he was fed growing up, on smoked, dried meats that he and Merle and his father hunted. Delicious? Fuck no, but it kept them fed. Some of the guys had decided they needed a root cellar like the pioneers had and Daryl had been helping with chopping wood down to secure it. 

They had begun making the prison a sustainable home. Everyone knew it wouldn’t last forever, the gates wouldn’t hold back walkers that long, they’d been having to reinforce them, but if they could make it through the winter they could handle that in the spring. 

-=-

Beth was a bed hog. 

Actually, Beth’s _stuff_ was a bed hog. And Daryl couldn’t exactly be mad about it. She had about five pillows that belonged just to her. Two for her head, two to help her sleep on her side, and the other one that switched positions all the time. Sometimes it was between her knees, other times it ended up on Daryl’s face.  
But tonight she was cuddled into his side, hair dangerously close to going in his mouth, and hand on his bare chest. His right arm was squished under her and all of her pillows and the other rested lightly on her tummy, lightly tracing circles on the silky fabric of her camisole. 

She groans against his skin. 

“What?” He asks, heart beating faster. He knew the baby wasn’t _supposed_ to come for a while, but he still couldn’t help but think of the worst. 

“It won’t stop kicking me.” She sighs. “Carol wasn’t joking when she said they’re more active at night.” 

“You think I can feel it?” He asks. He’s been so jealous that Beth can feel the little thing moving around and he can’t. 

She grabs his hand and presses it against the spot where the baby was kicking a few seconds ago. “Around here.”

They wait patiently, Daryl watching her belly, hoping he could feel it kick. “Maybe it’s too soon.” 

“Maybe.” 

It’s then when he feels the sensation of something moving against his palm. He doesn’t know how to explain it because it’s not like what he felt with Lori at all. With Lori it was a good, strong kick. He didn’t know what his kid just did, but it was so cool. “What was that.”

“You felt it?”

He nods. “Yeah it was just like something pressing against my hand, not a kick.”

“It was moving to the other side.” Beth smiles, moving his hand to the side of her belly that was touching the mattress. “It’s right there.” 

He keeps his hand on her belly, looking at her. She’s tired, he can tell by the look on her face, eyes droopy, that small smirk on her face that she only had when she was sleepy. 

“I love you, Beth.” He tells her.

Her eyes open a little more. “Daryl.” Really, she thought she might never hear him say it. And honestly, it was something she was okay with. He had other ways of showing her. But God, it was the most beautiful things she’s ever heard him say. 

“You ain’t gotta say it back. Just wanted you to know.”

“Daryl, I love you, too.” 

She attempts to move her head so she can kiss him but with the way she was positioned and with Daryl’s hand on her belly, it wasn’t going to work, so instead she presses a kiss to his chest and snuggles closer. 

-=-

Beth’s belly was somehow getting bigger, Dr. S had figured she was around six months in with three to go. 

At this point, there were three people could that could deliver this baby if need be. Dr. S., Hershel, and Carol; Hershel had been training her and refreshing her on what he told her about Lori. Beth probably wouldn’t need a C-section, which made her delivery a lot safer. But it was good for her to know, just in case. Daryl had learned a little about the miracle of childbirth from Hershel, but he was nowhere near as skilled.

Carol had even taught them some stretches to do to help with labor that she learned while pregnant with Sophia, apparently once you learn them you never forget. Rick even backed her up and said that when Lori was pregnant with Carl she went to a prenatal class where they taught them. Daryl had to choice but to get down on the floor with her and do the stretches, much to everyone’s amusement. 

-=-

“Cellar’s coming along good.” Carol smiles from beside Daryl. “You boys are doing really well.”

“Gotta keep ‘em fed. They’ll riot on us.” 

Carol laughs and nudges his arm. “I’m proud of you.”

“For what?”

“Being you.” 

Daryl grunts in response, not wanting her to get sappy on him. He has enough of that with Beth.

-=-

“I’m nervous Daryl.” Beth whines as she lotions up her belly again; something about wanting it to be soft for Dr. S. 

“Why?”

“He’s going to try and listen for the heartbeat this time. Weren’t you listening last appointment?”

“Yeah.” He wasn’t, their appointment was close to dinner time last month and he found another boar. Listening to Dr. S wasn’t high on his priority list, shoving juicy spit-roasted boar meat in his mouth was. 

She shakes her head. “No you weren’t.”

“Carol roasted that boar, not my fault.” 

“Barbeque sauce over your baby.”

He stops for a minute. “We ain’t had barbeque since your daddy’s farm, Beth. I got excited.” 

“Let’s go.” 

-=-

Dr. S smiles as he walks with Beth over to the bed. “Almost there, huh?” 

“It feels like it.” 

He smiles and sits on the stool. “I can’t make any promises, but we should be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat with the stethoscope.”

Daryl watches carefully as Dr. S helps Beth roll up her tank top so he can take a better listen. He knew Dr. S wasn’t going to be inappropriate and really had no reason to be so protective in this particular moment, but he was. “Might be a little cold.” He tells her as he puts the headset in his ears. 

He places the chest piece on Beth’s stomach, moving it around a little before find a spot. He nods to himself and writes something down in his notebook. 

“Heard it.” He smiles, taking the ear pieces out of his ears. “Sounds strong.” 

“Really?” Beth asks. “That’s good, right?”

“Very good.” 

-=-

“Why did you have to pick a cell upstairs?” Beth pants as she reaches their door. “I’m not cut out for this.” 

Daryl chuckles a bit from in front of the pack-n-play, he had been trying to fix a rip in the mesh side. “Come sit down.” 

She slowly walks over and lowers herself onto the bed, a sigh of relief escaping her lips when her butt hits the soft nest she had made for herself of blankets and pillows. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” 

“You’re almost there.” Daryl tells her as he moves across the room, sitting on the edge of the bed. “What can I get you?” He asks as Beth leans against the wall. 

“Nachos.” She whimpers. “No olives.” 

If he could, he would drive three hours to get her nachos. “I think we have some spray cheese in the kitchen, and some tortilla chips.”

She grimaces. “Thanks but I’ll pass.” 

“Thought so.” He smiles at her. “Anything else?”

“Foot rub?” She asks hopefully.

“Get ‘em over here.” He pats his lap as her smiles grows bigger. 

“You’re the best.” She smiles. 

-=-

“Judith colored you a picture of Winnie the Pooh.” Beth smiles as she walks into their cell. “Michonne brought her back a coloring book.”

Daryl takes the drawing and smiles. “I think we might be running out of room.” Their wall behind their bed was nearly covered in Judith drawings. Nearly everyone’s cell was. “Got save some room for Lil Skullcrusher’s drawings.”

“Do you have to call it that?” Beth cringes as she rubs her belly. “I don’t want it to be ruthless already.”

“It’d be helpful if we had a name.”

“Did I ever tell you…” Beth starts, lighting the candle next to her side of the bed. “about my vision from when I was younger?”

“You a witch?” Daryl asks with a laugh from their bed. 

“No!” Beth laughs. “Like when I was a little girl and I imaged my family one day.”

“I would’ve remembered that.” 

She climbs into bed, pulling the sheet over her legs. “Promise you won’t laugh?”

“You brought up, I get to laugh.” 

“Fine.” She sighs and makes herself comfortable the best she can. “I always imagined having three kids, you know? Before everything. Two boys and a girl, Benjamin, Stanley, and Agnes.” 

Daryl starts to laugh. “Agnes? Stanley? Beth…you’re joking. You want them to get laughed at?” 

“They’re nice names, Daryl.”

“Yeah if it was 1884.” 

“Close enough, ain’t it?” She asks.

“Almost.” He smiles at her. “Like Benjamin though.” 

“Not Agnes?”

“Hell no, Beth. Agnes.”

“It’s a family name!” 

-=-

The thermometer on the outside of the prison read forty degrees. Winter had come to Georgia, it would only be a matter of time before Beth was to give birth. 

“Maggie’s planning somethin’.” Beth states over breakfast. “She’s been weird the past couple of days.”  
“Haven’t noticed.” Daryl did know, though. Carol and Maggie were co-planning a party for Beth and the baby. Carol had been saving a banana nut bread mix they got at the dollar store for it. Maggie and Glenn were actually in the common area outside of the cellblock decorating with some streamers Michonne found. His job was to keep her busy until lunch. 

“You haven’t? She barely talks to me.”

“Want me to ask her?”

“No, Daryl.” 

-=-

“I just need to get somethin’ out the cell.” Daryl tells her as he leads her down the hallway. 

“I’ll wait here.”

“No, I need your help.”

“With what?” She asks, sighing. “I’m tired, Daryl.”

“I know, I just need your help.” He extends his hand and she takes it. Daryl leads her down the hallway to the door of the cellblock and pushes it open. 

All of their family are standing there in front of a banner that read ‘Congratulations Beth and Daryl!’ across a few sheets of paper, accompanied by swirls of color by Judith. Beth thought she was going to cry. There were yellow streamers twisted through the railings on the stairs and a spread of food on the table, there were even a few gifts waiting for them on the stairs. Daryl wasn’t expecting this. He was thinking maybe they would make some food and they’d have lunch together, but the time and effort that went into this party for them was a little overwhelming. 

They went down the line, hugging and thanking each person, even through Beth’s tears. 

Never in a million years did Daryl think that these people would end up being his family. 

-=-

They ate lunch first, all finding a place in the common area to sit while they talked and played games. Maggie asked everyone what they thought the baby would be. Rick, Maggie, Tyreese, and Hershel all thought it was a boy, while Carol, Michonne, Carl, Sasha, and Glenn thought it was a girl. Daryl and Beth refused to answer what they thought it was going to be. 

Beth ate her banana bread happily while Daryl answered the question about the baby’s name; they wanted to know if it was going to be named after anyone. The truth is; they didn’t know. They had talked about names quickly, Beth was the only one to bring names to the table, and Daryl only liked Benjamin. So if it was a boy; that was probably what they were going to go with. But for a girl, they had no idea. All he knew was that if it was a girl, their name would not be Agnes. 

Daryl really didn’t care what it was called, he just wanted Beth and the baby to make it through. 

After they ate, Michonne insisted that Beth now open her gifts. There were three bags, and they were from everyone in their group.

“Sorry they’re just in paper bags.” Maggie laughs from her spot on Glenn’s lap. “Ran out of wrapping paper.” 

Beth laughs from her seat beside Daryl. “I think it’ll be okay.” She opens the bag and pulls out a stack of white onesies with drawings on them. 

“Michonne found those and some fabric markers out on a run, she thought it would be nice if we all designed one.” Rick states as he picks Judith off the ground. 

“Oh my gosh.” Beth gets that teary look in her eye again as she looks at them. The top one was from Michonne and had a drawing of a katana on it, similar to hers. Glenn and Maggie’s read ‘sweetest little nibling’ on it with hearts in blue and red. Glenn also explained that nibling was a gender neutral term for a niece or nephew; he read it on the internet before the turn. Herschel’s was ‘I love my grandpa’ in green. Rick and Carl’s had ‘Lil Skullcrusher’ on it with a drawing of a skull on the back, Beth playfully shook her head at that one. Carol’s featured intricate little polka dots all around it. It was very Carol. And Sasha and Tyreese’s read simply ‘I am loved.’

Daryl honestly thought he was going to cry, too. 

The other bag contained various baby items, also found by Michonne. Bibs, a small jacket since Judith’s old one was far too big, and some little pants. The other bag contained some apricot body scrub and a pumice stone that Glenn had found in a house a couple weeks back. The scrub hadn’t been opened, but he couldn’t guarantee that the pumice stone was new.

The rest of the party went on great, everyone taking a turn to feel Beth’s belly when the baby started to move, and talking. Today was their day off, they weren’t going to worry about walkers or the fences or supply runs.

Today was about being a family. 

-=-

“Daryl wake up.” Beth pokes him with her ring finger in his arm. “ _Shit._ ” She shakes him this time. “Daryl, wake up!” 

He groans and opens his eyes, looking at the ceiling above him. “Wha?”

“It’s coming.”

“What?” He asks again, moving to prop himself up on his shoulder, facing her.

“ _The baby._ ”

He looks at her, eyes wide. “You’re serious?”

“Yes go get Glenn, _please_.” She extends the e at the end of please, holding her stomach. 

Daryl gets out of bed quickly and makes his way around to Beth’s side. “Want me to help you out of bed?” 

She’s on the verge of tears, but nodding. 

“Hey, Beth, it’s gonna be fine.” He slides his boots on, not bothering to tie them and gets up. “I’m gonna get you up, take you down to Maggie, okay? Then Glenn’s gonna go get Dr. S.” 

She nods as he leans down and helps her out of their bed. He smooths her hair down and kisses her forehead. “Slide your feet in your slippers. Okay, good. Breathe, Beth, remember what Dr. S. said.” 

Daryl grabs the flashlight from their filing cabinet and grabs her hand, leading her out of the cell, then to the stairs, where they carefully move down, one at a time, their fingers interlocked. 

“It’s gonna be fine.” He whispers as he walks her over to Glenn and Maggie’s cell, shining the light through the bars. He really doesn’t want to wake the whole cell block if it’s not necessary. 

“Daryl, it’s coming again.” 

“What?”

“Contrac—” She whimpers and squeezes his fingers. 

Daryl bangs the flashlight on the metal bars, causing Maggie and Glenn to both shoot up in their bed, looking both frightened and confused. 

Maggie jumps out of bed first, catapulting herself over Glenn’s still confused body, and runs through the door, grabbing at Beth. “Is it coming?”

Beth manages to nod despite her pain. 

“Glenn!” Maggie whispers sharply. “Get up, go get the doctor. This is your job. I’ll get daddy and Carol. Daryl, you’re taking her to the infirmary, right?” 

Daryl nods. “I’m going to put her in the wheelchair and take her over now.” 

-=-

Apparently, bed labor was not the most practical—Dr. S. had given them a speech on it when they started to go over how Beth would give birth. Beth didn’t really care what position she was in—she just wanted to have a safe delivery. So Beth was now squatting next to the bed with her forehead pushed against the mattress, while Daryl helped Carol light the candles around the room—Beth had already told him that she didn’t want him to touch her, at least not right now. And Daryl wasn’t about to piss her off. 

“Caleb, I don’t like this.” She sighs. “Can we try something else?”

Daryl turns around with a candle in his hand. 

“Yeah, let’s…” He goes on about something and before Daryl can even think he’s over next to the bed helping Beth get on her hands and knees on the bed. Maggie is rushing behind them collecting all of the pillows from the beds and bringing them over to Beth so she has a little more comfort. 

There’s a strong murmur outside of the infirmary door; Daryl just knows everyone is out there waiting. Hershel with his book, slumped in the wheelchair he had brought Beth over in, Glenn leaning against the wall trying to get some sleep. He figured Rick was probably pacing down the long hallway while Carl stretched out on the floor trying not to fall asleep. He didn’t expect these people to be waiting, it was some ungodly hour, they should be sleeping; Hershel wasn’t going to let them get off their job duties just because he had a grandchild on the way. 

But he knew that if the roll was reversed and it was someone else in here he would be in that hallway, too. 

-=-

The baby decided that it wasn’t going to grace everyone with its presence yet; Beth had had enough of being on her hands and knees and was now trying to get some last minute sleep while she continued to dilate. Whatever that meant, Daryl wasn’t exactly a baby doctor and he thought that asking might make him sound dumb because he’s pretty sure Beth has told him before but he just can’t remember. 

She’s letting him touch her now, her right hand threaded with his left, resting on the mattress, his thumb moving over her soft skin. 

He hates to think it, but it could very well be the last time he gets this moment with her; just being, watching over her while she sleeps, watching her chest rise and fall under the patient gown Dr. S had put on her who knows how many hours ago. 

There’s a very real chance that this could end up going the way no one wanted, but Daryl doesn’t want to think about that. He really doesn’t know what he’d do without her. 

-=-

Daryl has no idea how long it’s been when he hears the sound of Hershel’s staggering footsteps against the grungy linoleum of the infirmary. The sun is up, just barely, so he figures he couldn’t been out that long. 

There’s still no baby. 

“How’re you feeling honey?” Hershel asks, carefully plopping himself in Maggie’s discarded chair. His hand goes to her hair, pushing it from her forehead. 

“Tired and in pain.” 

He gives her a small smile. “Dr. S said it shouldn’t be much longer. You’re almost there.”

She nods. “I’m nervous.” 

“You’ll be fine, Bethie, everyone’s outside sending you positive thoughts. Carl said he’s not leaving until the baby comes, but we’ll see about that.” He smiles at her before setting his bible down on the bed. “We should pray.” 

Beth smiles, comforted by Hershel’s idea. “That’d be nice, daddy.” 

“Would you like to join us, Daryl?” He asks, looking up at his grandchild’s father. “I won’t make you say anything.”

He lets out a slow breath, looking at Beth’s exhausted face. If he was ever going to ask God for something, he guesses now would be a good time. “Yeah.”

Beth looks at him, giving him a sweet smile. “Just hold my hand.” 

-=-

She had been lying on her side for the past two hours, groaning low and steady, the contractions getting worse. Daryl wished he could take her pain away from her—he hated seeing her like this, face splotchy and wet with sweat and tears. He knows she can do it, there’s not a doubt in his mind.

Daryl remembers Hershel talking about his family history on the farm. Normally, he would’ve checked out and gone back to his personal camp, but something about the way they were huddled around the fire out where Dale’s RV was parked was oddly calming to him. 

The Greenes were forged from limestone—or at least that’s what the old man claimed, his earliest ancestor came from County Clare in Ireland, brought up near the River Shannon, made his living fishing, carved out a modest living for his wife and kids, went on that way for a while, farming and fishing. Their family line made it through the first famine and ended up in the states—Georgia, to be exact. They somehow made it through the worst times in history—a famine, a civil war, a depression, two world wars, and here the last three of them sit in the worst of it; all while battling a love of the drink and a delusion of a cure. 

Daryl knows there’s more to this story, but he’s pretty sure at this point he’d had enough of the biography of Timothy Greene and company and went back to his normal thoughts of thinking about how good a rack of ribs would be.

The point is—he’s not surprised when Beth grabs his forearm, digging her nails into his skin so hard he just knows the marks aren’t going away for days, and lets out a huge wail as she pushes her forehead against the mattress. 

Beth’s here, she made it, and she’s doing the most important job there is. 

Things got bad for her, just like her ancestor Timothy, but she changed her history just like he did. He wasn’t going out during a famine and she wasn’t going out because she felt weak. 

“You’re almost there, Beth, push again.” Dr. S tells her in a voice that has a slight shake to it. Daryl wanted to slap him and tell him that this was not the time to second-guess whether or not he could deliver his kid, but he remains calm, watching as Maggie pushes the hair off Beth’s face with a wet washcloth as she holds her leg up in the air. Daryl offered to do it, but Beth wanted him where she could grab him—honestly, he was kind of afraid she was going to punch him in the face. Maybe that’s to come later. 

She takes a deep breath, catching her nerves in her throat before pushing again, that same guttural groan escaping her lips, getting higher towards the end, met with a sob. 

“Hair! I can see the hair.” Dr. S’s voice returns with confidence. “Take a deep breath Beth, they’re almost here.” 

“I can’t.” She sobs and pushes her nails deeper into Daryl’s arm; definitely staying for at least four days. “It hurts.” 

“Beth, you’re almost there.” Daryl tries his hand at encouragement, running his free hand through her hair. “So close. One more, c’mon.” 

“I’m mad at you.” She whines before calming herself as much as she can forcing herself to push again.

-=-

It’s not long after that there’s a loud wail that fills the room, followed by Beth gasping and crying, this time not from pain—but from pure happiness.  
Maggie and Daryl help move Beth onto her back so she can hold the baby with more security, rather than on her side. 

“I love you.” Daryl presses a kiss to Beth’s wet forehead, over her hair and all as he strokes her face. “I’m so proud of you.”

Beth manages a weak smile and a mumble of ‘I love you, too.’ She’s exhausted, mentally and physically, as Dr. S places the baby in her arms, wrapped in the green fleece blanket Daryl had got at the dollar store when he got the pregnancy test. Beth wipes her eyes as she runs her finger along the baby’s cheek. “You’re so beautiful.” She breathes, running her finger down the baby’s skin a bright pink, clashing with its orange-ish shade of wispy hair. 

It’s at this point that he sees Maggie dart across the room to the door that leads to the hallway and opening it a bit to slip out. Not even a minute later there’s a huge cheer from outside the door. Their family had been waiting for her to have Lil Skullcrusher the whole time. He couldn’t believe it. 

Daryl wasn’t even mad that he didn’t get to cut the cord, probably would’ve fucked it up, better to have the medical professional do it. He runs his finger over the baby’s head, smiling to himself. This was _his_ kid. Every bad decision he ever made lead to Beth and every right decision lead him right here, where his child was cradled in a dollar store blanket in a prison infirmary, its pink cheeks pressed against the pale white skin of Beth’s chest.

He sits down in the chair next to the bed, scooting it up as close as he could, watching in awe as his kid yawned, its small tongue poking out just a little before looking up at Beth expectantly. 

“Wanna find out what it is?” Beth asks, fingers dancing at the green fabric. 

He didn’t really think about it, he thought he zoned out when Dr. S said what it was, but apparently he never said. He was kind of happy about that, now he had this moment with Beth. “Yeah.” He nods. 

“First,” She smiles. “what do you think? Just by looking at it.” 

“I don’t know, it’s a baby. Don’t really look like one or the other.” 

“You’re no fun, Mr. Dixon.” 

“You guess.” 

“Not if you don’t.”

“What is it?” He asks, he was getting impatient. It really made no difference, the feeling in his chest wouldn’t change either way. 

Beth moves the blanket and looks down, a smile on her face before laughing. “I knew it.” 

“C’mon, don’t be this way.” 

“It’s a sweet little girl. You have a daughter.”

“You better not be kidding Beth.” 

“I’m not. I promise. It’s a girl.” 

He has a daughter.

-=-

“I can’t believe she has my momma’s hair.” She’s been staring at the sleeping baby for the past five minutes, completely enthralled with the sight of her child. 

Daryl had never really thought about it—but Beth’s mom did have kind of a reddish-tone to her hair, at least in the one picture he saw of her, her hair was a dingy mess, packed with mud when she came back. “Thought she was gonna have your blonde hair.” 

“Me too.” She lightly runs her fingers over the strands. “I like it, though. It’s different.” 

“Least she won’t get made fun of in kindergarten.” 

Beth ticks her tongue. “You’re a big girl, huh?” She asks, continuing to run her fingers over all of the baby’s exposed skin. “And so soft.” 

Daryl knows he’s going to remember this moment for the rest of his life, but he still wishes he had a picture of it. Something to show her when she’s growing up, something she can show her kids. 

“She has your nose.” Beth smiles. 

“Sorry Lil’ Skullcrusher.” 

“No!” Beth exclaims. “She’s beautiful. You should hold her.” 

Daryl stands up and carefully takes the bundle into his arms. “She is big.” He comments as he carefully sits back down, she starts to fuss. “Oh, come on, I’m not so bad. Probably a lil’ stinky, I’ll give you that. Sure you’re going to do much worse.” 

The feeling of Lil’ Skullcrusher wiggling in his arms is honestly the best feeling in the world. It beat riding down the highway at 85 miles an hour on his bike, it beat the feeling of relief when he finally got out of his dad’s house. Nothing in the universe could ever take this experience from him. The way his baby daughter looks up at him with her wide Beth-like tired eyes. She’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen in his entire life. A perfect little carbon copy of Beth, but with the Dixon nose that he had inherited from his father. Of all things to inherit from the Dixon line, he supposed the nose wasn’t the worst thing to happen to her. 

-=-

Beth watched as her dad hobbled into the infirmary, Maggie holding the door for him. His eyes lit up like they used to on Father’s Day or his birthday or Christmas whenever Beth would proudly present to him a handmade gift in a messily wrapped box. 

“Oh, Bethie.” He exhales as Daryl gets up quickly to give him his chair, moving to the side. He knew how much this moment meant to Hershel, he could tell just by the look on his face. He claps a hand down on Daryl’s shoulder before he takes his seat next to her bedside. 

“It’s a girl.” She smiles. 

“A name?”

“Not yet.” Beth bites her lip. “Would you like to hold her?”

“I would.” Hershel smiles as he scoots the chair closer to the bed so he could take the baby from her arms. “Oh my, she’s quite heavy.” 

Beth laughs as Hershel brings the baby closer to his chest. 

“She’s got your mother’s hair.” Hershel gives a weak smile as he looks at the baby finding parts of both Beth and Annette in her features. “And Daryl’s nose.”

-=-

Maggie was beaming with excitement as Daryl handed her Lil’ Skullcrusher. “This is the best moment of my life.” Daryl can barely understand her through her twang, thicker with excitement. 

The feeling was mutual between the three of them. 

“Wow, thank you.” Glenn teases. “Thought that was the day we met or maybe when I proposed to you.”

Maggie ignores him and instead looks at Beth. “You know Bethie,” Maggie starts. “you were a fat baby, too. I’m not surprised she’s so chunky.”

“Maggie!” Beth exclaims as Glenn laughs from the wheelchair that they had brought in, since anyone holding her was not sitting on a stool. 

“What? It’s true, you were like nine pounds.” 

“She’s perfect.”

“I’m not arguing, just stating a fact. Were you a fat baby, Daryl?” 

“Don’t know, don’t think my parents really cared.”

Maggie hums. “I was a fat baby, mom always said Shawn was, too. Must be genetic.” 

Beth rolls her eyes. Baby Dixon was perfect in every way, didn’t matter if she was five pounds or ten.

-=-

After two days in the infirmary, Daryl helped Beth move back up to their room. He had borrowed Judith’s old carseat to transport Lil’ Skullcrusher in so it’d be a little easier. 

Beth was situated in bed with the pack-n-play right next to her, Beth thought it would be easier if it were closer since the baby was going to be eating a lot. “Do you feel bad?”  
Daryl looks at her like she has three heads. “About?”

“Not naming her yet?”

“No. She’s a baby, she don’t know.”

“I know but…it feels weird not calling her by a name.” She sighs and picks at the sheets covering her legs. “And I’m not calling her Lil’ Skullcrusher. I know you and Rick think it’s hilarious but I don’t.” 

“You liked Anna before.” 

“I still do.” 

“Then let’s call her Anna.” 

She shakes her head. “Makes me miss my momma too much, with the hair. It needs to be different—her own name.” 

“Samantha.”

“No. June?”

“Ain’t naming her after a month.” 

Beth smiles and looks at him. “Agnes?” 

Daryl tries not to laugh. “Hell no.” 

-=-

It took a couple more days until Daryl came running out of the library with a book in his hand. He didn’t stop until he got to the stairs up to the top floor of the cellblock. He was pretty sure Lil Skullcrusher was sleeping and he didn’t want to hear Beth complain about him waking her up. He grips the book tightly in his hand until he reaches their cell door. Beth is inside changing the baby into a new outfit. Daryl was right about one thing: Lil’ Skullcrusher shit like a goose. 

“I found her name.” He leans against the metal bars, trying to catch his breath. 

“What?” She asks with a laugh. “Why are you so out of breath?”

“I ran.” He takes a deep breath and walks into the room. “All the way from the library.” 

She raises an eyebrow as she picks the baby up. “Your daddy is something, huh?” She presses a kiss to the baby’s ginger hair. “Well, what is it?” 

Daryl hands her the book and steps back, hoping that she likes it. 

“Sword of Honor.” She reads. “We aren’t naming her any of those words.”

“No, the author.” 

“Evelyn Waugh.” She smiles. “Evelyn?” 

Daryl nods. “Evelyn Annette, if you want. Thought they sounded nice together.” 

“I love it, Daryl.” 

“Really?”

She nods. “It’s perfect, actually.” She looks down at the baby. “What do you think, huh? You like Evelyn?” 

“If she blinks once, she likes it.” 

-=-

Carl came up to the room after dinner. Much like Beth, he wandered around the catwalk in front of their cell, waiting for Beth or Daryl to notice him and invite him inside. Rick had given him very clear instructions—do not bother them. But Carl is Carl and doesn’t have a bone in his body that listens when someone’s life isn’t in danger. 

“What is he doing?” Beth whispers, pulling her shirt back up. Evelyn had just finished eating and Beth would have about a two and half hour break before Evelyn became hungry again. It was exhausting, but she would rather not dip into the formula stash just because she was feeling lazy. 

“Think he wants to see her. He’s the only one ain’t got to.” Carl had come down with a cough right before they started letting everyone else come in and Rick wouldn’t let him see the baby. Daryl flattens Evelyn’s hair and gets off the bed and walks to the door. Carl is about three feet away from him when he stops dead in his tracks. “Need something?” 

“Uh.” Carl stammers a bit. “No I was grabbing something for Judith.”

“You get lost?” Daryl asks, earning a hushed ‘Daryl!’ from inside the cell.

“No, I—”

“I’m messing with ya.” Daryl moves out of the cell frame. “If you want to see her, you can. Beth’s decent.”

“You sure? Dad told me I should give you two—er, three space.”

“Don’t listen, huh? C’mon.” 

Carl walks towards the cell and squeezes past Daryl, taking in the room. “Hi, Beth.” 

“Hi Carl.” Beth smiles. “If you sit down, you can hold her.”

Carl sits on the edge of the foot of their bed and Daryl comes from behind him to collect the bundle of white towel with just a bit of spikey red hair peeking through. “Shh, Ev. Carl’s good. Don’t listen, but he’s good.” He bounces her a bit before placing her in Carl’s arms. 

“Her name is Ev?” 

“Evelyn.” Beth answers. “Daryl came up with it.”

“It’s nice. She looks like an Evelyn.” Carl rocks her in his arms, smiling at the half-awake baby. 

“No one knows yet so keep it yourself.” Daryl adds; eyeing Carl like a hawk. He knew Carl wouldn’t drop her or hurt her, he was just overly cautious. Except for the Greenes and Dr. S, Carl is the first to hold little Evelyn and he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get over that slight uneasiness. He was okay with people looking with their eyes and not their hands, actually he was okay with Michonne running her fingers over her hair and Carol pressing kisses on her head; but holding her? 

“I’m the first to know?” He asks excitedly.

Beth nods. “Named her yesterday, we want to introduce to her to everyone at the same time. You understand, right?”

Carl nods. “Yeah, I won’t tell.”

-=-

Beth is finally feeling like herself three days later, just in time for the first annual board game night that was taking place in the main area of the cellblock. Michonne had been busy out on her runs and had found a bunch of old games in some house, how she managed to bring them back was beyond Beth, but she was glad. It would be nice to have something to do—all of them. 

“You sure you’re ready?” Daryl asks as he moves his face out of the line of fire from Evelyn’s stinky sheet diaper. “Gonna be a lot of people.” 

“Yeah, I’m sick of this room, Daryl.” She smiles at him as she brushes her hair, still wet from her shower. “It’ll be nice to see everyone, too.” 

-=-

The party is already in full swing when Beth makes her way carefully down the stairs, Evelyn bundled up in her green and white polka dot sleeper and a little blue hat to keep her head warm. Beth had her against her shoulder, her hand resting on her back. 

Carol is the first one to notice her from the extra bed they had set in the main living area as a day bed, she smiles and pats the space next to her. Beth is grateful, she really didn’t want to sit at one of the tables with a baby, where people were loud with excitement; at least against the wall it was quiet.

“Daryl said you were coming, I was beginning to think he was lying.” She laughs as Beth sits down, adjusting Evelyn so she was cradled in her arms. 

“Oh no, I needed to get out of that room.” Beth adjusts Evelyn’s hat. “It was starting to get smaller.” 

Carol gives her an empathic smile. “I know what you mean. With—” She looks like she’s going to go on, but stops, a frown coming over her face. “Been there.”  
Beth nods, she feels bad though she knows she shouldn’t. “Would you like to hold her? I mean it’s fine if you don’t want to, but…”

“I’d love to.” Carol’s eyes light up as Beth carefully places Evelyn in Carol’s waiting arms. “She’s absolutely beautiful, Beth. She’s going to be a real heart breaker.” 

“Not if Daryl can help it.” Beth teases.

They fall into a silence, the only sound coming from Carol’s cooing and Evelyn’s grunts—something she obviously got from Daryl. Beth was hoping she was more vocal than Daryl, she couldn’t take two of them wandering around the prison grunting in response to her questions. “Thank you, Carol.”

“For what?” She asks with a laugh. 

“Everything you did to help us, the birthing poses, the banana bread, learning how to deliver a baby. You didn’t have to do any of it and I am—and Daryl too, we’re so thankful for your help.” 

Carol smiles at her, tears in her eyes. “Beth, you, Daryl, everyone in this room—we’re family. It’s what we do. I know if the roles were reversed you would do the same and one day you might have to coach Maggie or Judith through it.” She stops and moves Beth’s hair. “It’s just what we do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read over this chapter once so there might be a mistake or two--if so, i'm sorry. i'll fix it tomorrow. it's late af.  
> also ive seen the name evelyn pronounce eve-lynn and ev-a-lin, baby dixon's name is pronounce 'ev-a-lin' 
> 
> also thanks for reading! :)

**Author's Note:**

> chapter titles are from Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness' 'Cecilia and the Satellite'


End file.
